Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 2 Vol 4.djvu/366

348 DEVONSHIRE His widow d. s.p.y 30 Mar. 1824, at Rome, aged 64.(*) Will pr. Feb. 1825. DUKEDOM. VI. 6 and 9. William George Spencer (Caven- dish), Duke of Devonshire [1694], Marquess „ of Hartington [1694], Earl of Devonshire EARLDOM. [' ■ 'i'^} ^^T ^^p^'^°'^" OF Hardwick [1605J, and Lord Clifford [1628J, only s, X. j and h. by ist wife, b. 21 May 1790, at Paris; j/j/f^ Marquess of Hartington till 1811; ed. at Harrow, and at Trin. Coll. Cambridge, B.A. 1 8 10; <:r. LL.D. i July 1 8 11 ; Lord Lieut, co. Derby 181 1-58. Bearer of the orb at the Coronation of George IV, 1821. Ambassador Extraordinary to St. Petersburg, 25 Apr. 1826, on a spec, mission (said to have cost him ^,50,000 beyond the sum allowed) for the Coronation (at Moscow, i Sep.) of the Emperor Nicholas, who subsequently (18 Mar. 1828) made him a Knight of St. Andrew, of St. Alexander Newski, and of St. Anne of Russia. P.C. 30 Apr. 1827; K.G. 10 May 1827. Lord Chamberlain of the Household, May 1827 to Feb. 1828, and Nov. 1830 to Dec. 1834. Bearer of the Curtana at the Coronation of Queen Victoria 1838. Pres. of the Hor- ticultural Soc. 1838-58. He was a Whig. He d. unm., 18 Jan. 1858, He appears with Miss Spencer in 1777, as "the Duke of D. and Miss Char- lotte Sp . . . r," in the notorious tete-a-tete portraits in Town and Country Mag., vol. ix, p. 121, for an account of which see Appendix B in the last volume of this work. In The Abbey of Kilkhampton, 1780, p. 93, Sir Herbert Croft gives his characteristics as '■'■sang-froid and sans-souci." As to his taste for ^^ Retirement" sec vol. i, Appendix H. A rare book, Modern Characters by Shakespear (1778), quotes Romeo and Juliet of him as "under key of cautionary silence." The Marchioness of Stafford, writing at the time of his death, refers to his good nature and good sense, which his inactive life rendered so little useful. Wraxall's opinion of him as expressed in his Memoirs is very much the same as that entertained of the 8th Duke by his contemporaries, vix. that his habit of mind was lethargic, his temper equable, his judgment sound, and his intelligence excellent. In 1797 his Irish estates were said to be worth ^11,000 p.a. For a list of the largest Irish landlords at this date see Appendix C in this volume. V.G. {^) " After having long constituted the object of his [the Duke's] avowed attachment, and long maintained the firmest hold of his affections as Lady Elizabeth Foster, she finished by becoming his second wife." (Sec Wraxall's Memoirs, vol. iii, p. 344). It has indeed been said that she (and not the Duke's then wife) was, in 1790, the mother (exchange being made of two infants of different sexes) of his successor. During her first widowhood she received an offer from Gibbon, the historian, who said of her, "If she chose to beckon the Lord Chancellor from his woolsack, he could not resist obedience." Her portraits by most of the leading artists of her time, in- cluding the one by Romney (slashed through by George, Prince of Wales, who had quarrelled with her), go far to justify Gibbon's remark. It is said of her in The Female Jockey Club (pub. I 794) that "if there be a laxity in her morals, difficult to be defended . . . she is intitled to admiration for the variety of her talents, and to respect for the constancy and warmth of her friendships." G.E.C. and V.G.