Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 58.djvu/152

 office in the new cabinet (January 1828), but was omitted from the Duke of Wellington's administration, and did not again secure office.

During the remainder of his long life Bexley took an active part in aid of religious and charitable societies, being for many years president of the British and Foreign Bible Mission and a strong supporter of the Church Missionary and Prayer Book and Homily societies. He also materially assisted in the foundation and the promotion of the interests of King's College, London. He died on 8 Feb. 1851 at Foot's Cray in Kent, when his peerage became extinct. He married, 22 July 1806, Catharine Isabella, second daughter of William Eden, first baron Auckland [q. v.] She died without issue on 10 Aug. 1810.

The remarkable feature in Vansittart's political career is that he held for twelve years the office of chancellor of the exchequer, though possessing no special qualifications, at perhaps the most difficult financial period in English history. Despite, however, his weak points as an economist and financier, he could justly boast that he left the country in possession of a surplus revenue of 7,000,000l. A mild-mannered man, most ineffective in debate, he yet had many friends, and his mediocre abilities with accommodating and moderate views probably account for his holding office from 1801 to 1828 with the exception of only two years. He took a keen interest in foreign politics, and maintained a lengthy correspondence with D'Ivernois and Generals Miranda and Dumourier, which is preserved among his papers in the British Museum.

Vansittart was a high steward of Harwich, a director of Greenwich Hospital, a F.R.S. and F.S.A.; and received the freedom of the city of Edinburgh on 2 March 1814.

There are numerous portraits of Vansittart. Two by William Owen now hang respectively in the Guildhall, Harwich, and in the hall of Christchurch, Oxford. Of two portraits by Sir Thomas Lawrence, one (engraved by Dean) is at Foot's Cray, and the other at Kirkleatham. A fifth portrait, by Stephanoff, was engraved by Scriven. A sixth, by Rand, now at Foot's Cray, was engraved by C. Turner. A crayon portrait by Zornlin is in the National Portrait Gallery.

[Hansard's Debates; Annual Register; Times, 10 Feb. 1851; Gent. Mag.; Dowell's History of Taxation; Buxton's Finance and Politics; Martineau's Hist. of Thirty Years' Peace; Walpole's Hist. of England; E. Herries's Memoir of J. C. Herries; nine volumes of Vansittart Papers in British Museum (Addit. MSS. 31229–37), bequeathed by Lord Bexley; information supplied by C. N. Vansittart, esq.] 

VANSITTART, ROBERT (1728–1789), regius professor of civil law at Oxford University, born on 28 Dec. 1728 in London at Great Ormond Street, was the second son of Arthur van Sittart of Shottesbrook, Berkshire, by his wife Martha, eldest daughter of Sir John Stonhouse, bart., of Radley, Berkshire, comptroller of the household to Queen Anne. Henry Vansittart [q. v.], governor of Bengal, was his younger brother.

Robert was educated at Reading and at Winchester. He matriculated from Trinity College, Oxford, on 3 April 1745, was elected a fellow of All Souls' College, and graduated B.C.L. in 1751 and D.C.L. in 1757. In 1753 he was called to the bar by the society of the Inner Temple. On 17 May 1760 he was nominated high steward of Monmouth, in 1763 recorder of Maidenhead, in 1764 recorder of Newbury, and in 1770 recorder of Windsor. In 1767 he was appointed by the crown regius professor of civil law in the university of Oxford, a post which he held till his death. For some years previous to his appointment he performed the duties of public orator for his predecessor, Robert Jenner.

Vansittart was on intimate terms with the painters George Knapton and Hogarth, as well as with the poets Paul Whitehead and Cowper. In Italy he met Goethe, who named a character in one of his comedies after him. He was a friend of Dr. Johnson, who regarded him with much affection, and who was invited to visit India with him by his brother Henry. In 1759, in a festive moment, Dr. Johnson, while on a visit to Oxford, proposed that they should scale the walls of All Souls' together. On another occasion, while Vansittart was edifying Boswell with a lengthy story of a flea, Johnson burst in with ‘It is a pity, sir, that you have not seen a lion; for a flea has taken you such a time that a lion must have served you for a twelve-month.’

Vansittart, who was elected a fellow of the Society of Antiquaries on 4 June 1767, amused his leisure with antiquarian studies. In the year of his election he edited ‘Certain Ancient Tracts concerning the Management of Landed Property’ (London, 8vo), which consisted of reprints of Gentian Hervet's translation of ‘Xenophon's Treatise of the Householde,’ 1534; Sir Anthony Fitzherbert's ‘Boke of Husbandry,’ 1534; and Sir Anthony Fitzherbert's ‘Surveyinge,’ 1539.

Vansittart was a man of licentious and debauched habits, and, like his brother Henry,