Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 42.djvu/227

 was negatived by 141 votes to 22 on 8 May 1798 (Diary and Correspondence of Lord Colchester, i. 154; Journals of the House of Commons, liii. 552). Onslow was created Viscount Cranley and Earl of Onslow on 19 June 1801. He died at Clandon Park, Surrey, on 17 May 1814, aged 82, and was buried in Merrow Church.

Walpole describes Onslow as ‘a noisy, indiscreet man’ (Memoirs of the Reign of George III, iv. 218), while ‘Junius’ calls him a ‘false, silly fellow’ (, Junius, i. 198). He held the posts of outranger of Windsor Forest from 1754 to 1763, and of surveyor of the king's gardens and waters from 1761 to 1764; he was created D.C.L. of Oxford University on 8 July 1773, and served as colonel of the Surrey regiment of fencible cavalry from 23 May 1794 to 27 March 1800. Six of Onslow's letters to Pitt, written early in 1766, are published in the ‘Chatham Correspondence’ (ii. 374–5, 378–88, 394–6, 402–4). Two interesting letters to Temple from Onslow are given in the ‘Grenville Papers’ (iii. 63–4, 75–7), and two to Wilkes, written in the most friendly terms, in Woodfall's ‘Junius’ (iii. 230–3). His correspondence with the Duke of Newcastle [see, afterwards , 1693–1768], some papers relating to his prosecution of Horne Tooke, and several letters to Wilkes and others are preserved in the British Museum (see Indices to the Addit. MSS. 1854–87).

Onslow married, on 16 June 1753, Henrietta, eldest daughter of Sir John Shelley, bart., of Michelgrove, Sussex, by whom he had four sons and one daughter. A pastel portrait of Onslow, by John Russell, was exhibited at the winter exhibition at the Grosvenor Gallery in 1889 (Catalogue, No. 209). There is a whole-length mezzotint engraving of Onslow by William Ward, after Thomas Stewardson.

His eldest son,, second (1755–1827), commonly known as ‘Tom Onslow,’ was M.P. for Rye from 1775 to 1784, and for Guildford from 1784 to 1806. He married, first, on 20 Dec. 1776, Arabella, third daughter and coheiress of Eaton Mainwaring-Ellerker of Risby Park, Yorkshire; and secondly, on 13 Feb. 1783, Charlotte, daughter of William Hale of King's Walden, Hertfordshire, and widow of Thomas Duncombe of Duncombe Park, Yorkshire, and died on 22 Feb. 1827, aged 72. He was a man of eccentric humour, with an absorbing passion for driving four-in-hand, which is commemorated in one of Gillray's caricatures ( and, Historical and Descriptive Account of the Caricatures of James Gillray, 1851, p. 463), and in the lines What can little T. O. do? Why, drive a phaeton and two!! Can little T. O. do no more? Yes, drive a phaeton and four!!!! 

ONSLOW, GEORGE or GEORGES (1784–1853), musical composer, born on 27 July 1784 at Clermont-Ferrand, Auvergne, was the son of Edward Onslow (youngest son of the Earl of Onslow), and of his wife, Mlle. Bourdeilles de Brantôme, a lady of great beauty. In early life Onslow was taught music as part of the ‘polite education of a gentleman of quality.’ On being sent to England to be educated, he studied under Hullmandel and Dussek, and, after the latter left England, under J. B. Cramer. Onslow subsequently returned to Auvergne, taking with him his pianoforte, the first instrument of the kind to be heard in the Puy-de-Dôme. At this period of his career his main idea seems to have been the attainment of great mechanical dexterity. He, however, turned his attention to composition on hearing extracts from Mozart's operas in the concert-room, and proceeded to Vienna to perfect his musical education. There he remained two years. But it was when he heard at Paris Méhul's overture to ‘Stratonice’ that (as he himself said) ‘I experienced so violent an emotion that I felt myself penetrated suddenly by sentiments which till that moment were quite unknown to me. … From that day I saw music in a different light’ (cf. Gazette Musicale de Paris, October 1853). At twenty-two years of age he began composition by taking as a model a trio of Mozart's, and he wrote a number of works on similar lines which were published later. In these he showed talents which he was advised by a friend, De Murat (afterwards Préfet du Nord), to cultivate under a competent teacher. This he found in Reicha, a pupil of Haydn, then just arrived in Paris (1808). In order to