Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 41.djvu/200

Northcote Exeter. An engraving by A. Wivell, 'from an original picture in the possession of James Northcote, R.A.,' was issued by Thomas Rodd on 1 Dec. 1817. It represents him as an old man with severe face, and the original picture has recently been bought by the Hon. H. O. Northcote.

In 1887 there was published the 'Note Book of Sir John Northcote, containing Memoranda of Proceedings in the House of Commons during the first Session of the Long Parliament, 1640.' It was edited by Mr. A. H. A. Hamilton, from the original manuscript in the possession of Sir Stafford H. Northcote, first Lord Iddesleigh [q. v.]; a memoir of the diarist was prefixed, and it contained some memoranda on the session of 1661. Some doubt was expressed by Mr. W. D. Pink in 'Notes and Queries' (7th ser. xii. 443-4) on the statement that the notes were taken by Northcote, on the ground that the journal runs from 24 Nov. to 28 Dec. 1640, when he had not a seat in parliament. He spoke on 15 June 1642 in favour of the appointment of Fuller as one of the lecturers at the Savoy Chapel.

 NORTHCOTE, STAFFORD HENRY, first (1818–1887), born at 23 Portland Place, London, on 27 Oct. 1818, was the eldest son of Henry Stafford Northcote (1792–1851), the eldest son of Sir Stafford Henry Northcote (1792–1851), seventh baronet, of The Pynes, Upton Pyne, Exeter, a descendant of Sir John Northcote [q. v.] His mother, Agnes Mary, only daughter of Thomas Cockburn of the East India Company's service and Bedford Hill, Surrey, died 9 April 1840. As a child he displayed great quickness, and at the age of six wrote a romance for his brother and sister. From 1826 to 1831 he was a pupil of the Rev. Mr. Roberts, whose school at Mitcham was afterwards removed to Brighton. In April 1831 he went to Eton, to the house of the Rev. Edward Coleridge. There he was somewhat idle, and, according to his tutor, `had a disposition too inclined to sacrifice itself to the solicitations of others,' until a strong remonstrance produced steadiness of purpose. An indifferent cricketer, but a good oarsman, he rowed bow in the Eton eight in 1835. On 3 March 1836 he matriculated from Balliol College, Oxford, having been an unsuccessful candidate for a scholarship, and went into residence at Michaelmas, the interval being spent with a tutor named Shirley, at Shirley vicarage, Derby. At the end of November he was elected to a scholarship, being second to Arthur Hugh Clough [q.v.] `Northcote read and rowed in the college eight, and lived chiefly with Eton men' (, Life, i. 27). Though sincerely religious, he remained untouched by the Oxford movement, but he was considerably influenced by his mother's leanings to Irvingism [see Irving, Edward (DNB00)]. He graduated B.A. on 21 Nov. 1839, with a first class in classics and a third in mathematics, proceeded M.A. in 1840, and was created D.C.L. on 17 June 1863. A year later he was an unsuccessful competitor against Arthur Penrhyn Stanley [q. v.] for the English essay, and decided not to try for a fellowship.

Northcote read for the bar, with chambers at 58 Lincoln's Inn Fields, and was called at the Inner Temple in 1840; but on 30 June 1842 he became, on the recommendation of Edward Coleridge, private secretary to Mr. Gladstone, then vice-president of the board of trade. Though his political opinions were still unsettled, he was of great assistance to that statesman in the Oxford elections of 1847, 1852, and 1853. At the request of Mr. Gladstone's committee he published (1853) a pamphlet entitled 'A Statement connected with the Election of the Right Hon. W. E. Gladstone as Member for the University of Oxford in 1847, with. his Re-elections in 1852 and 1853.' After Mr. Gladstone's resignation on the Maynooth grant, Northcote, while still acting as his private secretary, continued at the board of trade as legal assistant (February 1845-August 1850), but he was not called to the bar until 19 Nov. 1847. In 1849 he published a pamphlet entitled `A Short Review of the Navigation Laws from the earliest Times. By a Barrister.' It is a lucid summary, and the work of a convinced free-trader. On 3 Jan. 1850 he was appointed one of the secretaries of the Great Exhibition, and when, on the deaths of his father and grandfather (22 Feb. and 17 March 1851), he succeeded to the baronetcy, he was dissuaded from resigning his post by Prince Albert, who thought highly of him. Over-application, however, affected his heart; and the doctors ordered a rest after he had been created a C.B. (17 Oct. 1851).

His health restored, Northcote had thoughts of standing for Totnes, Taunton, and Exeter, but the negotiations fell through, though he issued an address to the last constituency in May 1852. Though 'rather a stiff 