William Anne Keppel, Earl of Albermarle

William Anne Keppel was born on 5 June 1702 at Whitehall, London the only son of Arnold Joost van Keppel, first earl, and his wife Geertruid Johanna Quirina van der Duyn. He was named after his godmother, Queen Anne. He was sent to Holland for his education, where he also in the service of the United Provinces.  Upon his return to England at sixteen, Albermarle was delegated captain with rank of lieutenant- colonel in first regiment of the grenadier company of the Coldstream Guards on 25 August 1718. Less than a year later, Albermarle’s father died, which left his to inherit his title and estate.

William Anne Keppel by John Faber jr.

            In October 1722, Albermarle began another long career as a Gentleman of the Bed Chamber for Prince George, a position he would retain once the Prince ascended to King George II, until 1751. While his reputation and responsibilities grew, Albermarle’s personal life also grew more interesting with his marriage to Lady Anne Lennox, second daughter of Charles, first Duke of Richmond, on 21 February 1723. She would serve as a Lady of the Bed Chamber for the Queen and become a favorite of the king. The couple had seven sons and eight daughters, which included George Keppel, third earl; Admiral Augustus Keppel; Viscount Keppel; and Frederick Keppel, bishop of Exeter. Lady Anne, however, was not the only woman in the earl’s life. His mistress, Louis Gaucher was considered an “accomplished girl” and a beauty. Nevertheless, there are some, such as Horace Walpole, who accused her of selling information to the French during Albermale’s time in Paris as ambassador in 1748.

The titles continued to accumulate for the young man. On 18 May 1725, he became a Knight of the Bath, which he resigned in 1749 when he was made Knight of the Garter. His relationship with George II must have been one of mutual trust for in 1724 he was made an aide-de-camp to the king, which he would hold for ten years. On 22 November 1731, he became colonel of the 29^th regiment of Foot, stationed in Gibraltar, but he left his position upon his promotion to Captain and Colonel of the third troop of Horse Guards in May 1737.

One of Ablermale’s biggest responsibilities came on 26 September 1737 when he became governor of Virginia. While Sir Robert Walpole was prime minister (1722-1740), the colony of Virginia was left in the hands of the Duke of Newcastle and the colony experienced a period of “salutary neglect” up until the Seven Years’ War. Nevertheless, the British merchants found ways to promote their friends onto the Virginia Council. Albermarle was the absentee governor of Virginia, replacing George Hamilton, first earl of Orkney and during this time, he repeatedly came into conflict with lieutenant- governor, William Gooch. Virginians, especially Gooch, were unhappy with Abermarle’s right to appointment naval officers. Gooch thought Abermarle was intruding on his political territory and worried the governor would elect those who did not possess the proper technical knowledge or ability. Eventually, an agreement was made, which gave Gooch the right to elect officers as long as he got approval from the executive council. Nevertheless, should a vacancy occur, the governor retained the right to appoint whomever he saw fit. Toward the end of Gooch’s term in 1746, he wrote in a letter to his brother that since Albermarle’s appointment, almost every office in the Colony had been “given away in England.” Albermarle would serve as the absentee governor of Virginia until his death in 1754.

 Other big promotions in Albermale’s career occurred on 2 July 1739, where he was appointed brigadier- general, and 20 February 1741/2, which marked his promotion to major- general. He transferred to Flanders in 1742, where he became leader of the Household Calvary. In his lifetime of military service, the earl participated in at least two battles, Dettingen (June 1743) and Fontenoy (1745) during the War of Austrian Succession. In Dettingen, a victory for the allies that ended with the death of around 5,000 French, Albermale had his horse “killed under him, but suffered no other hurt.” Before the battle of Fountenoy, Albermarle made his way back to his old regiment of the Coldstream Guards where he was promoted to lieutenant- general on 26 February 1745. Fontenoy was an unequivocal defeat of the allies, during which Albermarle received a deep bruise in the chest after a French horse ran him over in a cavalry charge.

During the 1745 Jacobite rising, Albermarle was assigned as General George Wade’s second in command at Newcastle. Early the following year he joined Cumberland’s staff in Scotland. In March, he traveled to Stathbogie with two regiments of horses and two infantry brigades in order to clear a trail for the rest of the army. In the battle of Culloden, the final confrontation of the 1745 Jacobite rebellion, he led the front line even though he “was beginning to think himself too old for this sort of thing” (Prebble, 28). In mid- July Cumberland decided to leave command of Scotland to Albermale who, upon hearing this news, “prayed that he might be anywhere else but in North Britain” (Prebble, 230). In his letters, Albermarle was unafraid to express in contempt of the barbarous and “cursed country” (Prebble, 303). He was officially appointed on 23 August 1746 but soon became “irritable and overworked,” partially due to his strong dislike of Scotland (Prebble, 308). Cumberland’s original plan for Scotland included pacification through road building and new fortifications, which Albermarle continued and he soon moved to Edinburgh after assuming command. The network of espionage he attempted to create from these headquarters failed to capture the Prince, Charles Edward Stuart, who escaped to France in September of 1746. Albermarle was eventually released from command in January of 1747 and sent back to Flanders. It is possible to imagine the pleasure the earl felt upon relinquishing his command in Scotland, although his military training and tact probably prohibited showing such emotions plainly on his face. Not long after leaving his position in Scotland, Albermale was sent to Paris (1748) as an ambassador- extraordinary and minister- plenipotentiary.  It was during this time that rumors flew about his mistress selling information to the French.

             Two years after becoming Knight of the Garter (22 June 1749), Albermarle became a groom of the stole for the king and a privy councillor on 12 July 1751 and then became a lord justice during the king’s absence in Germany in 1752. His final appointment before his sudden death occurred in 1754 when he was sent back to Paris to negotiate the freedom of several British subjects being detained in America by France. 

On this diplomatic mission in Paris, the earl of Albermarle passed away on 22 December 1754 unexpectedly “in his coach… after supper.” (Peerage, 94)  His remains, after they were brought back to England, were buried in the South Audley Street chapel in London. He was remembered by some, such as the French historian Jean- Francois Marmontel, as “an honest man, noble, sensible, generous, full of loyalty, frankness, politeness, and goodness,” yet Albermale also had a reputation as a spendthrift, which earned him the nickname of "Spendthrift Earl." In a letter written to Sir Horace Mann, Horace Walpole exclaimed,

“Lord Albemarle keeps an immense table there, with sixteen people in his kitchen; his aid-de-camps invite everybody, but he seldom graces the banquet himself, living retired out of the town with his old Columbine (Louis Gauchet). What an extraordinary man! with no fortune at all, and with slight parts, he has 17,000l. a-year from the government, which he squanders away, though he has great debts, and four or five numerous broods of children of one sort or other”

When he married, Albermarle’s fortune totaled around £90,000, to which his wife brought £25,000. Unfortunately, his lavish spending left only £14,000 after his death, which was only enough to cover his debts. King George II, who was rather attached to Lady Anne, secured Albermarle’s widow a yearly pension of £1,200. According to Marmontel, his mistress was secured £250 a year upon his death.

Resources:

Gibbs, Vicary and H. Arthur Doubleday. The scomplete peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain and the United Kingdom extant extinct or dormant. London: St. Catherine’s Press, 1910. https://archive.org/stream/completepeerageo01coka#page/94/mode/2up

MacKinnon, Daniel. Origin and Services of the Coldstream Guards, Volume 1. London: Richard Bentley, 1833. http://books.google.com/books?id=sB9EAAAAYAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false

Marmontel, Jean-François. Memoirs of Marmontel: Written by Himself. London: Hunt and Clark, 1827. https://archive.org/stream/memoirsmarmonte01marmgoog#page/n8/mode/2up

Morton, Richard. Colonial Virginia. Chapel Hill: The University of North Carolina Press, 1960.

Prebble, John. Culloden. London: Secker and Warburg, 1961.

Spain, Jonathan. “Keppel, William Anne, second earl of Albemarle (1702–1754).” Jonathan Spain In Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online ed., edited by Lawrence Goldman. Oxford: OUP. http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/15443 (accessed February 10, 2015).

Walpole, Horace and Baron George Agar Ellis Dover. Letters of Horace Walpole, Earl of Orford, to Sir Horace Mann, British Envoy at the Court of Tuscany: 1744-1750. London: R Bentley, 1833. https://play.google.com/books/reader?id=yFcKAQAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&output=reader&hl=en

Lady Mary Cowper: Lady of the Bed Chamber and Persipacious Diarist

Mary Clavering was born in 1685; the eldest surviving daughter to John Clavering, landowner and mine owner of Chopwell, co. Durham and first wife Anne Thompson. While her early years are virtually a mystery, it is noted that she spent her later teenage years in London with her Aunt Grace, Lady Wood, who was the widow of Thomas Wood, the bishop of Coventry. A remarked beauty, Mary also proved herself talented with the harpsichord; a talent she chose not show off in public but reserved for the privacy of Lady Wood’s home when there was company.

Lady Mary Cowper, engraving by Sir Godfrey Kneller

Although Mary was not considered a woman of considerable fortune, this did stop her from gaining the affections of William Cowper (Lord Chancellor to the king 1707-1710, 1714-1718 and at the time of their meeting, lord keeper to the great seal). Lady Mary’s early relationship with William Cowper, whom she met after consulting him on some law business, was inlaid with secrecy. Mary remarks in her diary “My Lord being a Widower when the late Queen gave him the Seals, it was no Wonder the young Women laid out all their snares to catch him.” An account follows of a Lady Harriet Vere, who apparently made several advances on her future husband before concluding he was already engaged to Lady Mary. Upon this discovery, Lady Harriet and her faithful kinswoman sent Lord Cowper an anonymous letter threatening to hinder the “passing of his Title” (elevation to a barony) in an attempt to dissuade him from marrying Lady Mary. In her diary, Mary remarks how the threat did not impede their engagement but as a result, the couple chose to marry in secret on 16 September 1706. Their nuptials where not publicly acknowledged until 1707, even though Lord Cowper became Baron in 1706. In 1710, Mary discovered a letter written to her husband by an admirer, to whom she immediately sent a vitriolic response. She lamented her husband’s actions in a letter, which stated, “I now live to see that all those assurances were only to keep me silent. For now I live to see you keep correspondence with people not at all fit for you if you design to be faithful to me.” Nevertheless, their relationship appears to have gained stability after this occurrence and the couple would have four children, Sarah (1707-58), William (1709-64), who would became a Lord of the Bed Chamber from 1733-1747, Anne (1710-50), and Spencer (1713-74), who would become the Dean of Durham in 1746. 

In 1714, Mary became a Lady of the Bed Chamber to Princess Caroline and elected to begin a diary in October, so she could maintain record of court events. In order to secure such a position, Lady Mary had established a friendly correspondence with Princess Caroline four year earlier and had received “the kindest letters from her.”  Mary was an educated woman and her fluency in French was one of the reasons why she was so admired by king George I. Her husband, a Whig, used his wife’s French eloquence to his political advantage. On several occasions, she was called upon to translate her husband’s memorials before they were sent to the king, such as a “Treatise of the State of Parties.” Although her father descended from a branch of a Northumbrian family with Jacobite tendencies, her political involvement shows she chose to adhere to the politics of her husband.

In 1718, Lady Mary’s husband resigned the Great Seal after speculatively losing favor with the king when Lord Cowper sided with the Prince of Wales in a quarrel with his father. Nevertheless, the husband and wife managed to help bring a brief reconciliation between the king and prince in 1718, but the record of this year is lost. While investigating a Jacobite conspiracy in 1722, Lady Mary’s husband was wrongly accused of being a co-conspirator. In a fit of paranoia, Lady Mary proceeded to burn any part of her diary that mentioned the royal quarrel. Thus, there is a gap her court record between October 1716, which ends in the birth of the Princess’s stillborn son, and April 1720. Lady Mary and her husband are seen in 1720 trying to personally persuade the Princess to demand her children, which were left under the care of king George I, be restored to her. The influence the Cowper’s had within the court had diminished at this time and the reconciliation between the king and prince that took place in 1720 was not in thanks to them. Robert Walpole, much to Lady Mary’s annoyance, had risen to a place of incredible influence. In her diary, she remarks bitterly,

“Walpole has engrossed and monopolized the Princess to a Degree of make her deaf to Everything that did not come from him. He stirred the Prince’s Zeal against South Sea stock, which he was well enough please with until Walpole had a Mind to signify himself upon that Head, and then the Prince and all Friends cried out against it.”

William Cowper died suddenly on 10 October 1723 in the house he built in Cole Green. Although their relationship had rocky moments, Lady Mary became so distraught after his death, her daughter believed she suffered from a "broken heart." She did not wish to long outlive her husband and ultimately received her wish when she passed away on 5 February 1724 in her home at Cole Green, Hertfordshire. She was later buried in St. Mary’s Hertingfordbury, Hertfordshire.

Before their marriage, William Cowper had promised Lady Mary a £300 jointure, which he reaffirmed in his will. Her wealth upon her own death included a £300 p.a. jointure, plus an added £500 p.a. jointure as well as jewelry, coach, and horses. 

Resources:

Cowper, Mary and Spencer Cowper. Diary of Mary Countess Cowper, Lady of the Bedchamber to the Princess of Wales, 1714-1720. London: Spottiswood and Co., 1864. http://books.google.com/books?id=g6VcAAAAcAAJ&printsec=frontcover&vq=hamilton&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q=hamilton&f=false.

Cruikshanks, S., D. Hayton, S. Handley. “Cowper, William (1665-1723), of Herford Castle and Colne Green, Hertingfordbury, Hets. And Ratling Court, Kent.” The History of Parliament. Accessed February 10, 2015. http://www.historyofparliamentonline.org/volume/1690-1715/member/cowper-william-1665-1723

Deconinck-Brossard, Françoise. “Cowper, Spencer (1713–1774).” Françoise Deconinck-Brossard In Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004. Online ed., edited by Lawrence Goldman, January 2008. http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/6508 (accessed February 11, 2015).

Kugler, Anne. “Cowper , Mary, Countess Cowper (1685–1724).” Anne Kugler In Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online ed., edited by Lawrence Goldman. Oxford: OUP, . http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/6506 (accessed February 10, 2015).

'Parishes: St. Andrew Rural,' in A History of the County of Hertford: Volume 3, ed. William Page (London: Victoria County History, 1912), 468-472, accessed February 10, 2015, http://www.british-history.ac.uk/vch/herts/vol3/pp468-472.

Dorothy Boyle, Countess of Burlington

Dorothy Savile was born in London on 13 September 1699. She was the eldest daughter born to William Savile, the second marquess of Halifax, and his second wife, Lady Mary Finch. Upon turning eighteen, Dorothy and her younger sister, Mary, inherited the Halifax estates, which made their marriage prospects increase significantly. In fact, she married the third earl of Burlington, Richard Boyle, on 21 March 1721 and became Dorothy Boyle, Countess of Burlington. They had three daughters, Dorothy, Juliana (who died in infancy), and Charlotte. Dorothy eventually married George, Earl of Euston and Charlotte married William Cavendish, who would later become the fourth Duke of Devonshire. 

Dorothy Boyle sketched by William Kent

Dorothy and Richard proved a good match and had a very agreeable relationship, in part due to their shared interests in the arts, such as the theater and music. Dorothy herself was an amateur caricaturist and portrait painter. Nevertheless, she an interest in the architectural design of her and her husband’s new villa at Chiswhick, even though the project of remodeling the Chiswick estate began before their marriage in 1719. The new villa was completed around 1729 in the Palladian style, a Venetian architectural style inspired by Andrea Palladio, whom her husband fervently admired. This house was one of the three in which the Countess spent her married life; the others include the Burlington House on Piccadilly and Londesborough in the East Riding of Yorkshire. The Burlington House on Piccadilly served as the "London town house" for Dorothy's husband and therefore, it is likely that Dorothy took up residence there while she served as a Lady of the Bed Chamber for Princess Caroline (1727-1737). 
Traditionally considered a whig, recent theories have arisen than Dorothy's husband was secretly an agent for the Jacobite cause. Speculations have been thrown that his interest in architecture, supposedly embedded with Jacobite symbolism, was a cover for political activities in support of the exiled Stuarts. Nevertheless, there is no concrete evidence for these tendencies but Dorothy understood that her husband was under suspicion. In an exasperated letter to Lord Burlington in 1731, she informed him that the authorities had insisted on opening and reading their correspondence, only to find nothing condemning. Lady Burlington shrewdly remarked, "if I had any secrets to impart to you I should certainly not commit them to the post, especially since the receipt of you last letter which had plainly been opened."

For over thirty years, Dorothy and her husband maintained a friendship and patronage with William Kent, the painter, designer, and landscape gardener who lived with them in their house on Piccadilly. It is imagined that over their years together, Kent gave Dorothy lessons but she mostly taught herself by copying other paintings or drawings. As a Lady of the Bedchamber for Princess Caroline she was given permission to copy portraits in the Royal Collection. Nevertheless, the two doted on each other. Dorothy on occasion referred to him as Kentino or “little Signor” and the pair drew frequently together. Kent did introduce her to pen and ink sketches and their drawings often used an “energetic ink and pen line.” One of her more popular sketches displays Kent sitting as his desk and, unsurprisingly, sketching. Primarily, the Countess used friends and family in her sketches, most of which were of her daughters Charlotte and Dorothy (one of her best portraits was of her daughter, Lady Charlotte Boyle). She did, however, produce and oil portrait of Princess Amelia.

Sketch of William Kent by Dorothy Boyle

Dorothy and her husband became patrons of David Garrick, the actor and playwright, for six years. During this time, the Countess had received the newly famous dancer, Eva Maria Veigel (Violette) and welcomed her into their home at the Burlington House. Violette and Garrick would soon become attached to each other and develop a romantic relationship.  In the beginning, Lady Burlington did not entirely agree to the match of Violette and Garrick, having become quite protective of her rising star. The couple eventually married anyway in 1749 but the countess still attempt to retain a semblance of control over the couple's private life. Unfortunately, their relations turned sour and correspondence ceased.

On a more positive note, Dorothy maintained a long and amicable friendship with Alexander Pope, the English poet. For almost twenty years (1732-1750), he helped her organize and publish some of the papers of her grandfather, George Savile, marquess of Halifax. Pope also wrote a poem titled, “On the Countess of Burlington Cutting Paper” dated around 1732. 

Poem written about Dorothy Boyle by Alexander Pope

The exact fortune of the Earl of Burlington and his wife is not known but it can be speculated that it must have been quite hefty. The earl participated in and funded several large architectural projects in his lifetime, the Chiswick villa being partly financed through the fortune Dorothy brought to the marriage. These massive undertakings, however, did lead Lord Burlington into debt. Sir William Heathcote noted around 1737 that Lord Burlington had debts adding up to £ 169,000. In order to pay off some of this outrageous amount, Lady Burlington's husband had to sell. A letter written by Alderman Barber to Dean Swift in March 1738 stated, "My Lord Burlington is now selling in one article £ 9,000 in Ireland for £ 200,000, which won't pay his debts." Although the Burlington family had been wealthy enough to build several beautiful structures, the earl's spending put the family in financial danger.

Family Portrait of Lord Burlington and his wife and daughters

After her husband's death in 1753, the Countess became ill. Partially due to age and loneliness, Dorothy Boyle passed away on 21 September 1758 in the comfort of the Chiswick House.

Resources: 

Bailey, John Burn. Modern Methuselahs: Or, Short Biographical Sketches of a Few Advanced Nonagenarians Or Actual Centenarians who Were Distinguished in Art, Science, Literature, Or Philanthropy. London: Chapman and Hall, 1888. https://books.google.com/books?id=bMFqAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false

Barnard, Toby and Jane Clark. Lord Burlington: Architecture, Art and Life. London: The Hambledon Press, 1995.

“Biography of William Kent.” Victoria and Albert Museum. Accessed February 8, 2015. http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/exhibitions/william-kent-designing-georgian-britain/biography-of-william-kent/

'Chiswick', in An Inventory of the Historical Monuments in Middlesex (London, 1937), pp. 7-10 http://www.british-history.ac.uk/rchme/middx/pp7-10 [accessed 5 February 2015].

Cork Historical and Archeological Society. Journal of the Cork Historical and Archeological Society. Cork: Guy and Co. Ltd, 1908. https://books.google.com/books?id=HP96AAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false

Daniel Lysons, 'Chiswick', in The Environs of London: Volume 2, County of Middlesex (London, 1795), pp. 185-222 http://www.british-history.ac.uk/london-environs/vol2/pp185-222 [accessed 30 January 2015].

Egerton, Judy. “Boyle, Dorothy, countess of Burlington (1699–1758).” Judy Egerton In Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004. Online ed., edited by Lawrence Goldman, January 2008. http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/66564 (accessed February 3, 2015).

Kingsbury, Pamela Denman. “Boyle, Richard, third earl of Burlington and fourth earl of Cork (1694–1753).” Pamela Denman Kingsbury In Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, edited by H. C. G. Matthew and Brian Harrison. Oxford: OUP, 2004. Online ed., edited by Lawrence Goldman, January 2008. http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/3136 (accessed February 4, 2015).

Lupton, Rev. J. and Alexander Pope. The poetical works of Alexander Pope, with life of the author and notes by J. Lupton. London: William Tegg, 1867. https://books.google.com/books?id=018CAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false.

Rogers, Pat. The Alexander Pope Encyclopedia. Westport: Greenwood Press, 2004.

https://books.google.com/books?id=udRlsDhfhoUC&pg=PA48&lpg=PA48&dq=Pallas+unveil%27d:+the+life+and+art+of+Lady+Dorothy+Savile,+countess+of+Burlington&source=bl&ots=R8RsJZ27Dp&sig=0O9TiA3MWaEYrR4gqp-q-h1vStw&hl=en&sa=X&ei=Ny_QVMTaIIz8yQSu54C4CQ&ved=0CCsQ6AEwAg#v=onepage&q=Pallas%20unveil%27d%3A%20the%20life%20and%20art%20of%20Lady%20Dorothy%20Savile%2C%20countess%20of%20Burlington&f=false.

Sir David Hamilton: Midwife, Confidante, Mediator

Sir David Hamilton was born in Lanark, Scotland in 1663. The youngest of ten, he was born to James Hamilton, laird of Boggs and Dalzell and his third wife, Isobell. In 1686, he graduated from the University of Paris with a doctor in medicine after his dissertation, “De passione hysteria,” and joined a Licentiate of the College of Physicians two years later. Hamilton married his first wife, Mary, on 18 July 1689. Unfortunately, she died less than two years after their marriage on 21 December 1691 and left him childless. His second marriage, which provided him with two boys, Thomas and David, was not necessarily a happy one. Elizabeth, Hamilton’s second wife, was the daughter of Sir Thomas Lane, the Lord Mayor of London. They married on 26 September 1694 but split up in 1713 after Hamilton’s repeated accusations of Elizabeth being unfaithful.

            Although Hamilton’s love life was bit tumultuous, he managed to create a successful professional life. By 1703, he was physician in ordinary to Queen Anne and on 25 June 1703, he was elected to the Royal College of Physicians. That same year, he became Sir David Hamilton. This occasion was marked in the diary of Narcissus Luttrell on 17 April 1703, which stated, "The Queen has knighted Dr. Hamilton, an eminent man midwife of this city." Hamilton was admitted into the Royal Society on 5 May 1708, which is the UK’s leading academy of science, medicine, and engineering that began in the mid- seventeenth century. Even before his appointment to the court of Princess Caroline in 1714, Hamilton had cultivated quite a reputation in the Royal Court Society and was “the leading practitioner of mid- wifery in the metropolis” according to the Roll of the Royal College of Physicians.

            Although Hamilton was technically considered a Whig, politics were not his life focus. A Dissenting Christian, he wrote several religious works, such as “The Private Christian’s Witness to the Truth of Christianity” in which he stated that through prayer he could see the course of his future. His diary that began in 1709 and ended after the death of Queen Anne in 1714 was the most notable written work of his career. The diary consists of his life as he served Queen Anne as her physician and unofficial confidante from around 1703 until her death in 1714.

            According to his diary, during the year 1712 and again in 1713 Hamilton appears to have discussed his marital troubles with the Queen, who advised him to keep it a private matter. Nevertheless, Hamilton did not seem to take the advice according to Dame Sarah Cowper, who noted in her own diary that Hamilton took “Bodily pains to prove himself A Cuckold.” Hamilton’s relationship with the Queen must have been a relatively intimate one if he felt he could share with her such sensitive issues.

When a rift formed between the Queen and her good friend Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, due to political differences, Hamilton took on the role of negotiator. In April of 1710, the Queen asked him to speak to the Duchess and have her “make her submissions”. From there on, he acted as a go between by reporting to Queen Anne what the Duchess said and what she wrote to him and then turned and relayed the Queen’s response to the Duchess. Throughout the whole ordeal, Hamilton remained concerned for the Queen and worried that such politics were having an adverse effect on her health.

            In 1714, Hamilton became the physician to the Princess of Wales. When Princess Caroline was pregnant in 1716, he was not allowed to attend her; perhaps due to the fact the Royal Court was not entirely convinced he was an accomplished physician. The Princess became pregnant again a year later but Hamilton was told to attend to the Duchess of Argyle instead, who was also in labor.

His practice as physician and male mid- wife made Hamilton a rather wealthy man by earning a fortune around 80,000 pounds, which was speculatively lost in the 1720 South Sea Bubble (this happened after the South Sea joint-stock company, which had taken on 10,000,000 pounds of the government’s debt in exchange for a monopoly of trade in the South American and Pacific islands, boomed and collapsed). Although the evidence for this is scant, Hamilton did pass away intestate, which might suggest he no longer had any money for his sons to inherit. During his time in the Royal Court, he lived on Bow Lane.
Sir David Hamilton passed away on 28 August 1721, while still in service of Princess Caroline and was buried in St. Katherine Coleman with his first wife.

Resources:

Baigent, Elizabeth. “Hamilton, Sir David (1663–1721).” Elizabeth Baigent In Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online ed., edited by Lawrence Goldman. Oxford: OUP, . http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/12058 (accessed February 3, 2015).

Munk, William, G. H. Brown. The Roll of the Royal College of Physicians of London: 1701- 1800. London: The College, 1878. https://books.google.com/books?id=LeMRAAAAYAAJ&pg=PA12&lpg=PA12&dq=sir+david+hamilton+munk&source=bl&ots=oZ8Z8XG8mO&sig=Bm-QLsqO7aCszrIcTaorP2yCSEc&hl=en&sa=X&ei=ggjJVMvfA8WpyATg2oCAAw&ved=0CCAQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=sir%20david%20hamilton%20munk&f=false.

Noorthouck, John. “Addenda: The Mayors and Sheriffs of London,” in A New History of London Including Westminster and Southwark (London: R Baldwin, 1773), 889-893, accessed January 29, 2015, http://www.british-history.ac.uk/no-series/new-history-london/pp889-893.

Roberts, Philip. The Diary of Sir David Hamilton: 1709-1714. Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1975.

Sheppard, Francis. London: A History. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1998.

Sir Andrew Fountaine: Collector, Tutor, and Enthusiast

"Sir Andrew Fountaine and Friends in the Tribune Gallery of the Uffizi, Florence" by Giulo Pignatta. (Sir Andrew is the one of the left)
(To me this looks like the cover of an 18th century rap album)

Sir Andrew Fountaine was born in 1676 in Norfolk, England into a respectable family at Narford Hall. He was the eldest son of the gentleman, Andrew Fountaine, and his wife, Sarah, Sir Thomas Chicheley’s youngest daughter. A gifted and charismatic man, he graduated from Christ Church in 1697 and was introduced to the court of William III by family friend, the second Duke of Devonshire. He moved quickly through the academic sphere and was chosen by Dr. Henry Aldrich in 1698 to present an oration in Latin to William III, for which Fountaine was knighted in 1699. Fountaine was a man of virtuosi interests, especially coins. In 1705, he contributed to George Hicke’s Thesaurus Septentrionalis, his personal research on Anglo- Saxon and Danish coinage. Nevertheless, what truly landed him into the realm of the Royal Court occurred in 1701 when he chosen to carry the Act of Succession with Lord Macclesfield to the elector of Hanover. His unbridled enthusiasm and scholarly interests in medals and coins, combined with a charismatic personality, made him a popular man amongst the court. Afterwards, Fountaine chose to extend his trip from Hanover and head to Germany and then Rome for the first of two European tours he would make throughout his lifetime. These journeys would effectively establish his reputation as an art collector and amateur architect.

            Fountaine’s first trip to Italy began around the year 1702, the same year he was admitted to the Royal Society of Berlin. Most of what is known about this trip is through his correspondence with Leibnitz, the German philosopher and mathematician, whom he wrote frequently. Writing from Rome in June 1702, he told Leibnitz that he had “very little time to Spare in this Town, because the antiquities are soe numerous, and the other curiositys so diverting, that a stranger always has something to fill his time about." While in Rome, Fountaine was introduced to the renowned artist, Carlo Maratta, who would later produce the portrait of him seen below. 

"Sir Andrew Fountaine" by Carlo Maratta

            Before setting out on his second tour of Europe, Fountaine was to accompany his friend, Lord Pembroke, newly appointed Lord- Lieutenant of Ireland, as Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod to the opening of Ireland Parliament in 1707. During this venture, Fountaine established a friendship with Jonathan Swift, the poet and essayist. In a letter from London in 1710, Swift spent time lingering at home before dining with Sir Andrew; he called this a “silly day.” Swift also mentions how the pair "sauntered through China shops and booksellers" before heading off to the tavern. Evidently, Fountaine's passion for curious objects was something in which he liked to include his friends (I can't help but picture Fountaine meticulously studying the items in the shop while his friend stands off to the side wondering how on earth he was going to get him to leave. Like me in Barnes and Noble). 

            In 1718, Fountaine was Vice Chamberlaine to Princess Caroline as well as the tutor to her third son, William Augustus as well as his (proxy) knight of the Bath. Not much has been documented about Fountaine's position in the Royal Court, but it evident that he was one of Princess Caroline's favorites. The admiration and respect Fountaine had for the Princess and Queen is evident from the portrait he placed on the staircase of his home in Narford.

            Fountaine added another prestigious title to his name in 1727 when he became the warden of the Royal Mint. While the DNB states he was the successor of Sir Isaac Newton, the Chancery patent rolls cited by the Institute of Historical Research show that Walter Cary was actually Fountaine’s predecessor. He held this position until his death if 1753, after which Richard Herbert took on the role.
Eventually, Fountaine grew tired of London and court life and retired around 1733 and spent his final two decades expanding on his family estate, Narford Hall. It is unclear how large Fountaine’s fortune was during his lifetime; however, there is a record of the House of Lords reimbursing Fountaine for 215 pounds, 14 shillings, and 9 pence. The fact Fountaine was able to spend such an amount suggests he had a rather sizable fortune at his disposal. Furthermore, his expansive collection of art and majolica, considered the “finest outside of Italy”, would also require a substantial income to upkeep. Fountaine’s pieces of majolica would become the centerpiece of his collection and collectors from all over the world would make pilgrimages to see it.

Sir Andrew is considered the "first great collector of majolica in this country" (England)

On 16 June 1884, Messrs. Christie, Manson, and Wood held a four-day sale that scattered most of this legendary collection.
Sir Andrew Fountaine never married and passed away on 4 September 1753, leaving behind no children. His sister, Elizabeth, married Colonel Edward Clent and had one daughter also named Elizabeth, who would go on to marry Captain William Price. This Elizabeth, (Fountaine's niece) had a son named Brigg Price who would go on to assume the Fountaine surname and arms, carrying on the family name. 

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Resources:

Ford, Brinsley. 1985. "Sir Andrew Fountaine: One of the Keenest Virtuosi of His Age". Apollo. 352-358.

Grazebrook, H. Sydney. The heraldry of Worcestershire. London: J. R. Smith, 1873. https://archive.org/details/heraldryworcest00grazgoog.

Kemball, John Mitchell. State papers and correspondence illustrative of the social and political state of Europe from the Revolution to the accession of the house of Hanover. London: J.W. Parker, 1857. https://openlibrary.org/books/OL7107833M/State_papers_and_correspondence_illustrative_of_the_social_and_political_state_of_Europe_from_the_Re.

Moore, Andrew W.. “Fountaine, Sir Andrew (1676–1753).” Andrew W. Moore In Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online ed., edited by Lawrence Goldman. Oxford: OUP, . http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/9994 (accessed January 30, 2015). 

Sainty, J.C. “Wardens of the Mint 1572-1869” Institute of Historical Research. Last modified May 2002. http://www.history.ac.uk/publications/office/mint-wardens#top.

Swift, Jonathan. The Journal to Stella. Project Gutenberg, 2003. <http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/4208>. 

'Warrant Books: January 1709, 11-20', in Calendar of Treasury Books, Volume 23, 1709, ed. William A Shaw (London, 1949), pp. 44-63 http://www.british-history.ac.uk/cal-treasury-books/vol23/pp44-63 [accessed 26 January 2015]. 

Lists, Lists, Lists

Welcome!

This week was my first official week digging through the list of Court Records for Prince George and Princess Caroline. I've been using the online Magnæ Britanniæ notitia, a list of officers and statistics complied by the English writer John Chamberlayne, to get a closer look at the specifics of who worked in the royal household and what they did. Because Chamberlayne's Magnæ Britanniæ is organized by year, the snapshots beneath only cover those in service during the year 1723.

So, I've been comparing lists such as these...
  

Just one of several pages for Prince George.

Princess Caroline's for 1723 wasn't quite as extensive.

This list Dr. Bucholz found covers the year 1716; the earliest record I'll have for the Court.

To lists like these compiled by my predecessor:

Ignore the highlighting, those are just notes to myself.

 "Occ." means occupied and "vac." means vacated.

It's been a lot of back and forth and squinting at the names on the screen while trying to make sure I don't forget anyone or add unnecessary information (shout out to Antonín Dvořák and my classical music station on Pandora for keeping me calm when the database logs me out for the fourth time in an hour). By comparing the two lists I can get a better idea of when people started working in the Royal Court, when they left, and what jobs they had in their time there. Some people seemed to have worked their way into different positions. Augustus Schutz (Esq.), for example, was recorded in 1716 as a Groom of the Bed Chamber for Prince George, but in Chamberlayne's records for the year 1723, he was mentioned as Master of the Robes. Evidently, there were opportunities to shift positions within the Royal Household.

One thing I've learning this week is that William, John, Henry, and Charles are all incredibly popular 18th century male British names. I counted over 30 Williams, at least 35 Johns, and about 20 for Henry and Charles. Praise be to whomever managed to keep all those straight (although, it probably made learning names easier). My favorite name was for a Waterman in the Court of Prince George, William Williams. It does not get much more English than that. I've also picked up on what could be familial relations amongst the names on my lists. Stephen Towers and Samuel Towers both first appear on the record in 1716 and although they held different positions, one was a groom to the cellar and the other a servant to the clerk of the kitchen, there is a possibility that they were related. Nevertheless, this is just mere speculation and would require more research to back up that claim.

Another tidbit I couldn't help but notice was the fact that names are sometimes spelled differently from source to source. This isn't entirely surprising consider people still manage to misspell or mishear names in this age (I recently received a magazine addressed to Sarha Deas) so a missing "e" in Bos or an added "i" in Gardner could likely be due to some sort of transcription error. Perhaps the recorder was accustomed to spelling it "Franklyn" instead of "Franklin"(fun fact: that's my dog's name. No, he wasn't named after one of Prince George's Grooms). Either way, I'm not sure we'll ever know which spelling was the proper one.

Next week I will begin blogging about specific people who served in the Royal Court as well as combing through records for the year 1726. The name Sir Andrew Fountaine has already nabbed my attention; partly because I could actually track him down in the DNB database but also due to his background as an art collector (unfortunately, I could not find any information about William Williams, but if I did he would be at the top of my list).

Stay tuned!

(Pssst. There's an option to follow this blog to the right of this post. Just throwing that out there.)

"Greetings, Your Royal Highness"

Hello my dear reader,

Welcome to my blog! My name is Sarah Deas and I am a junior year History major, English minor, and self-proclaimed Anglophile at Loyola University Chicago. I am incredibly excited about the upcoming semester and the internship opportunity with which I have been presented, one that will challenge me in ways I cannot fully expect. I will be working with Dr. Bucholz, who is chair of the history department, by composing a list of officers of the British Royal Court for the Database of Court Officers (DCO). I will be specifically researching the servants of Prince George (who would later become King George II) and Princess Caroline (who would later become Queen) during the years 1714-1737. This blog will follow my research as I delve into the lesser known, or perhaps even forgotten, lives of the officers and servants who lived and worked within the royal household. 

The Royal Court oriented itself around the monarch. It was a way of social advancement as well as the epicenter of English cultural and political life. In order to grasp an understanding of the court, one must remember to look at those at the bottom of the hierarchy as well as those who managed to fight their way to the top. My goal is to not only discover names and dates but to understand some of the intricacies of court life in general. 

Bear with me as I begin to discover the characters that make up the story that was life in the Royal Court of Prince George and Princess Caroline during 1714-1737.