Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Chiffinch, William
CHIFFINCH, WILLIAM (1602?–1688), closet-keeper to Charles II, was only brother of Thomas Chiffinch [q. v.], to most of whose offices he succeeded in 1668, as page of his majesty’s bed-chamber and keeper of the king’s private closet. But his employment showed itself to be of disreputable nature as time wore on, for he was a time-server and libertine, wasteful, unscrupulous, open to bribery and flattery, ingratiating himself into the confidence of courtiers and mistresses, delighting in intrigue of every kind except political plots, though even with these he sometimes meddled, but seldom skilfully. Above all predecessors he carried the abuse of backstairs influence to scientific perfection. Nearly all the allusions in contemporary records to ‘Chiffinch’ (without initial), connected with waste of money and the smuggling into the palace of objectionable persons (compare ‘Peveril of the Peak’), must be understood to refer solely to William, and never to the far more respectable Thomas. In 1666 he assisted the Duchess of Cleveland in her plot to cause the king to surprise the Duke of Richmond in company with ‘La Belle Stuart’ (as related in the last chapter of De Grammont's ‘Memoirs’). He married Barham Nunn, by whom he only had one daughter, also named Barbara, who in turn was married in December 1681 to Edward Villiers, first earl of Jersey (1656-1711). In an undated letter to Sir John Shaw, Charles II writes thus: ‘Saturday. I have had so much businesse these two dayes pastas I could not gett time to speake with your man that is come over. but now if you will send him to Will Chifines at 7 this evening, he will bring him privately into my closett.-C. R.’ As a useful go-between and lively companion he appears to have been known to everybody about the court. His portrait at Gorhambury (a woodcut copy of it is in the Abbotsford edition of the ‘Waverley Novels,’ vii. 515, 1845) shows a not unpleasing countenance, tolerably frank and open, smooth-skinned, not servile or insinuating; Pepys frequently mentions him, being taken with Sir John Menzies to see the ‘great variety of brave pictures’ in the king's closet, which Chiffinch knew how to commend, and sometimes they held together a backstairs revel over wines and pickled herring or cold chickens (Diary). More than fifty entries of money paid to William Chiffinch, sometimes considerable sums, which occur in the list of secret service money of Charles II and James II, between 30 March 1679, when he received 300l., and 25 Dec. 1688, when he received 500l., prove his activity and influence. Purchase of wines, presents of hawks, payments for flowers, red coats for falconers, paving Windsor, curious clocks, dog-kennels, ‘pump work and water carriage in Hyde Park, provisions (once), but generally designated simply ‘bounty,’ a total of l3,792l. went. through is hands. Of this, 2,300l. was marked for his majesty’s own private use. He was also the receiver of the secret pensions aid by the court of Louis XIV to the king (Duke of Leeds Letters, 1710, p. 9, 17, 33). Anthony à Wood mentions him (calling him ‘Cheffing’) as holding the greatest trust in harbouring the royal supper-companions. He is often indicated in the manuscript lampoons of his day, as also in some of the printed libels, such as ‘Sir Edmondbury Godfrey’s Ghost,' 1678 in ‘Poems on Affairs of State,’ 1697, i. 97, 1703 edition):
It happened, in the twilight of the day,
As England's monarch in his closet lay,
And Chiffinch stepped to fetch the female prey,
The bloody shape of Godfrey did appear . . .
And in sad Tocal sounds these things declare, &c.
He attended the famous loyal feast of the apprentices at Saddlers' Hall, 4 Aug. 1681, and continued in favour under James II, whose fall he did not survive, dying at the end of 1688. To his house at Whitehall the Duke of Monmouth had been brought after the Sedgmoor flight in 1685, and continued there with Lord Grey until they were taken to the Tower (Bramston's Autobiography, p. 186).
[Family papers cited in connection with Thomas Chiffinch; Hasted mentions that Iden Green, at the south end of Staplehurst, Kent, was formerly the property of the Chiffinches, but passed to Brian Fausett of Heppington (Hist. and Topog. Survey of Kent, vii. 126); Mynors Bright's edition of Pepys's Diary; Luttrell's Brief Historical Narration, i. 114. 1857; Count Grammont's Memoirs, ed. Sir Walter Scott, p. 413, ed. 1846; Harleian MS. 1220, art. 10. &c; Bramston's Autobiography, 1845 (Camden Soc.); Akerman's Secret Services of Charles II and James II (Camd. Soc.), 1851.]
Dictionary of National Biography, Errata (1904), p.64
N.B.— f.e. stands for from end and l.l. for last line
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| 239 | i | 15 | Chiffinch, William: after p. 186) insert He was M.P. for Windsor 1685-7 |