Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 41.djvu/158

 course some time intended as an addition to my Observations and Advices Œconomical,’ and ‘Some Notes concerning the Life of Edward, Lord North.’ In an ‘Essay upon Death’ contained in this work, he deplores that in England, ‘where Christianity is professed, the number of those who believe in subsistence after death is very small, and especially among the vulgar,’ and the work contains some interesting remarks upon the various forms of faith in vogue at the time.

When the Convention parliament was summoned to meet in April 1660, he was, under strong pressure of his father and much against his own inclination, induced to contest the county of Cambridge in the royalist interest; he and his colleague, Sir Thomas Willis, were, however, defeated at the poll, and he had to content himself with a seat as representative for the borough. When the parliament was dissolved in December he did not seek re-election, and from this time he lived in retirement at Kirtling, except that in 1669 he was summoned to take his seat in the House of Lords, two years after his father's death. He was a man of studious habits and of many accomplishments, an enthusiastic musician, and fond of art; but he is chiefly to be remembered as the father of that remarkable brotherhood, of whom Roger, the youngest, has given so delightful an account in the well-known ‘Lives of the Norths.’ North died at Kirtling, and was buried there on 27 June 1677. His wife, a lady of noble and lofty character, survived till February 1683–4; by her he had a family of fourteen children, ten of whom grew to maturity, while four—Francis, Dudley, John, and Roger—are noticed separately. Charles, the eldest son, who was granted a peerage during his father's life-time as Lord Grey of Rolleston, eventually succeeded his father as fifth Baron North; Montagu, the fifth son, was a London merchant, whose career was spoilt by his having been made a prisoner of war, and confined for three years in the castle of Toulon at the beginning of the reign of William and Mary. Of the daughters, Mary, the eldest, was married to Sir William Spring of Pakenham, Suffolk; the second, Ann, married Mr. Robert Foley of Stourbridge in Worcestershire; Elizabeth, the third, married, first, Sir Robert Wiseman, dean of the arches, and after his death William, second earl of Yarmouth; Christian, the youngest daughter, married Sir George Wyneyve of Brettenham, Suffolk. 

NORTH, DUDLEY (1641–1691), financier and economist, was born in King Street, Westminster, on 16 May 1641. He was the fourth son of Dudley, fourth baron North [q. v.], by Anne, daughter of Sir Charles Montagu [q. v.] In his childhood he was stolen by a beggar-woman for the sake of his clothes, but was soon recovered from her clutches. He was sent to school at Bury St. Edmunds under Dr. Stevens, who took a strong dislike to the boy, and treated him so harshly that he continued through life to entertain for his old schoolmaster a feeling of deep animosity. He showed no taste for books, and was early intended for a mercantile life, and, after spending some time at a ‘writing school’ in London, he was bound apprentice to a Mr. Davis, a Turkey merchant, who appears to have been in no very large way of business, though trading with Russia and in the Mediterranean. In 1661 North was sent as supercargo in a vessel bound for Archangel. On the return voyage she sailed for Leghorn, and finally to Smyrna, where he took up his residence for some years as agent or factor for his master's firm, and soon made himself so necessary, and managed the business so adroitly, that he contrived not only to increase his employer's trade, but to add materially to his own small capital. In consequence of some disagreement with his partner he came back to England to make new friends, and shortly after his return to Smyrna, about 1662, he received an offer to take the management of an important house of business in Constantinople, and rapidly became the leading merchant in the Turkey Company, of which he was elected treasurer. His influence at Constantinople was so great that there was at one time some likelihood of his being appointed ambassador at Constantinople, in the room of Sir John Finch (1626–1682) [q. v.], whose mission was not a success. He came back to England finally in the autumn of 1680, having taken care previously to commit his business to the charge of his brother Montagu, and he appears to have already realised a large fortune, though he was not yet forty years old. His brother Francis was at this time chief justice of the common pleas, and looking forward to the woolsack, and Dudley may well have thought that a career at home was open to himself. He arrived to find his mother still alive, though