Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 50.djvu/383

 suggested his capacity for diplomatic work, and in September he was sent as envoy extraordinary to Louis XIV, with the object of promoting more cordiality and a closer union of the two fleets against the Dutch. Failing to get a permanent appointment as he desired, he returned to the court, where he was gratified by his appointment as groom of the chamber to the king, and still more by his return to parliament for Newark; but the House of Commons disputed the writ, and a new one was not issued until April 1677. On this occasion he spared no effort to win the contest. Much depended upon the capacity of the candidates for treating and drinking with their constituents. In the graphic account given in his letters to Halifax, Savile laments that he was continually drunk for days previous to the election, and ‘sick to agony of swallowing.’ He won the seat and with it the notice of Danby (cf., iv. 588), the coveted permission for his friend's brother, Algernon Sidney, to return to England, and a renewal of Sunderland's interest. When the latter returned from his embassy in Paris in 1679, Savile realised his ambition, and was sent in his place, though with the title of envoy only. In this capacity he seems to have exercised unwonted discretion. He sent home some valuable reports of the French government's treatment of the protestants during the important years preceding the revocation of the edict of Nantes, and pressed upon the English council with some success the adoption of measures to facilitate the reception of protestant immigrants into England. During a flying visit to London in July 1680 he kissed hands as vice-chamberlain, and in March 1682, upon his retiring from his post at Paris, was appointed a commissioner of the admiralty. He relinquished his commissionership in May 1684, but was reappointed vice-chamberlain by James II, and held that office till March 1687. After this date his health gave way. In September he went to Paris for a surgical operation, from the effects of which he died on 6 Oct. 1687 (Brit. Mus. Addit. MS. 28569, fol. 66; the last letters in the Savile Correspondence are thus two years post-dated). He left what he possessed (mostly debts) at the disposal of his brother, Halifax. Henry Savile's ‘Correspondence,’ mainly with Halifax, was edited for the Camden Society, with a valuable memoir, by William Durrant Cooper, F.S.A., in 1858. His credentials as envoy are in the Bodleian Library. Rochester addressed to Savile a number of ‘familiar letters,’ twenty of which are given in Rochester's ‘Works’ (1714, pp. 118–51).

[Foster's Yorkshire Pedigree; Savile Correspondence; Luttrell's Brief Hist. Narration, i. 7, 54, 530; Hatton Correspondence, passim; Pepys's Diary and Correspondence, ed. Braybrooke, iii. 123, v. 126, 130, 149, 151, and 288–9 (a letter from Savile to Pepys); Brown's Nottinghamshire Worthies, p. 236; Letters of Algernon Sidney (the majority addressed to Savile), 1742, passim; Ewald's Algernon Sydney, ii. 35; note kindly supplied by Miss H. C. Foxcroft.]  SAVILE, JEREMIAH (fl. 1651), musician, is named by Playford among the eighteen principal London teachers ‘for the voyce or viol’ during the Commonwealth (Directions prefixed to Musical Banquet, 1651). He was the composer of the little part-song called ‘The Waits;’ this consists only of the syllables ‘fa la la,’ but the music is so tuneful and inspiriting that it even now forms the traditional and accepted conclusion of all madrigal societies' programmes. The piece was first published in Playford's ‘Musical Companion’ (1667). It was formerly sung four times through, at present only three; and words were set to it by Thomas Oliphant. Sir H. R. Bishop used it in the arrangement of ‘Twelfth Night,’ produced at Covent Garden in 1820; and reset it for five voices, to be sung by Viola, a Page, Curio, Valentine, and ‘Benvolio.’ There are many modern editions. Three other pieces by Savile were printed in ‘The Musical Companion;’ one of these, the song, ‘Here's a health unto His Majesty,’ is still familiar. Three solo songs by him are in Playford's ‘Select Musicall Ayres and Dialogues,’ 1653.

[Playford's publications; Grove's Dict. of Music and Musicians, iv. 375; Davey's Hist. of English Music, pp. 276, 285.]  SAVILE, JOHN (1545–1607), judge, born in 1545, was the eldest son of Henry Savile of Bradley, Yorkshire, by his wife Elizabeth, only daughter of Robert Ramsden. Sir Henry Savile (1549–1622) [q. v.], provost of Eton, was a younger brother. He must be distinguished from John Savile, first baron Savile of Pontefract [q. v.] John matriculated from Brasenose College, Oxford, in 1561, but did not graduate, and entered the Middle Temple, where he was autumn reader in 1586. In 1572 he was elected member of parliament for Newton, Lancashire. He practised in the exchequer court, and in 1594 he was made serjeant-at-law. In 1598 he became baron of the exchequer on Burghley's recommendation. In 1599 he was placed on a commission for suppressing heresy. He was knighted by James I on 3 July 1603, and in 1604 was made chief justice of the county palatine of Lancaster.