Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Cheyne, Charles

1358056Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 10 — Cheyne, Charles1887Thomas Finlayson Henderson

CHEYNE or CHIENE, CHARLES, Viscount Newhaven (1624?–1698), son of Francis Chiene of Cogenho, descended from an old Northamptonshire family, and of Anne, daughter of Sir William Fleetwood, was born about 1624. He succeeded his father in 1644. He married Lady Jane Cavendish [see Cheyne, Lady Jane], eldest daughter and coheiress of William Cavendish, first duke of Newcastle [q. v.], with whom he obtained an immense fortune. With her dowry Cheyne purchased from the Duke and Duchess of Hamilton the estate of Chelsea in 1657, and the manor of the same in 1660, disposing at the time of his paternal estate of Cogenho. He was chosen member of parliament for Agmondisham in 1660, and created a Scotch peer by the style of Viscount Newhaven and Lord Chiene on 17 May 1681. As a Scotch peer he was eligible for election to parliament, and was chosen member for Newport, Cornwall, in 1696. He made the manor of Chelsea his principal residence, and did much to promote the improvement of the district. His own mansion house he extended and embellished, introducing the latest inventions for comfort and convenience. Evelyn narrates in his 'Diary:' 'I made my Lord Cheney, a visit at Chelsea, and saw those ingenious waterworks invented by Mr. Winstanley, wherein were some things very surprising and extraordinary.' Cheyne died on 30 June 1698, and was interred at Chelsea, where in the parish church is a monument to his memory. His first wife dying in 1669, he remarried after 1686 Isabella, widow of John Roberts, first earl of Radnor. By his first wife he left one son, William, who succeeded him, and two daughters, Elizabeth and Catharine.

William, second viscount, born in 1667, was M.P. for Buckinghamshire under Anne, lord-lieutenant of the county in 1712, and was removed from that office on George I's accession in 1714. He sold the manor of Chelsea to Sir Hans Sloane in 1712, but several streets are still called after his family. With his death, 14 Dec. 1738, the peerage became extinct.

[Nisbet's Heraldry, i. 220; Faulkner's Chelsea, i. 331-9 and passim; Burke's Extinct Peerage.]

T. F. H.

Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.63
N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line

Page Col. Line  
216 ii 15 f.e. Cheyne, Charles, Viscount Newhaven: after chosen insert tory
12 f.e. for Agmondisham in 1660 read Great Marlovv in 1665-6
10 f.e. after 1681 insert He was commissioner of customs 1675-87
8 f.e. after for insert Harwich in 1690 and
217 14 for Buckinghamshire under Queen Anne read Agmondisham 1685-7, 1701-2, and 1705-9, Appleby 1689-95, and Buckinghamshire 1696-1701 and 1702-5