Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Larpent, John
LARPENT, JOHN (1741–1824), inspector of plays, born 14 Nov. 1741, was the second son of John Larpent (1710–1797), who was forty-three years in the foreign office, and twenty-five years chief clerk there. His mother was a daughter of James Pazant of a refugee Norman family. John was educated at Westminster, and entered the foreign office. He was secretary to the Duke of Bedford at the peace of Paris in 1763, and to the Marquis of Hertford when lord-lieutenant of Ireland. In November 1778 he was appointed inspector of plays by the Marquis of Hertford, who was then lord chamberlain. He is said to have been strict and careful, and to have left behind him manuscript copies of all the plays submitted to the inspector from 1737 till 1824 (cf. Notes and Queries, 2nd ser. iv. 269). He died 18 Jan. 1824. Larpent married, first, on 14 Aug. 1773, Frances (d. 9 Nov. 1777), eldest daughter of Maximilian Western of Cokethorpe Park, Oxfordshire, and by her he had two sons, of whom the elder, Francis Seymour Larpent [q. v.], is separately noticed. His second wife, whom he married 25 April 1782, was Anna Margaretta, elder daughter of Sir James Porter [q. v.], by Clarissa Catherine, eldest daughter of Elberd, second baron de Hochepied (of the German empire); by her he had two sons, John James and George Gerard, both of whom, by license dated 14 June 1819, added the name De Hochepied. On 25 March 1828 the elder son succeeded his mother's brother as seventh Baron de Hochepied, a license to bear the title in England having been granted 27 Sept. 1819. George Gerard de Hochepied Larpent is separately noticed.
[Burke's Peerage and Baronetage; Nichols's Lit. Illustr. i. 468; Walpole's Letters, ed. Cunningham, v. 21; Alumni Westmon. 362, 364.]