Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 58.djvu/354

Villiers  ed. Cartwright, 1875; Clarendon's Hist. of the Rebellion, ed. Macray, 1888; Life and Continuation, ed. 1857; Mignet's Négociations relatives à la Succession d'Espagne, 1842; Dalrymple's Memoirs of Great Britain and Ireland, ed. 1790; Lady Burghclere's George Villiers, 2nd Duke of Buckingham, 1903. Letters of Buckingham are contained in the Fairfax Correspondence, 4 vols. 1848–9, in Miscellanea Aulica, 1702, and in Buckingham's Miscellaneous Works. A lampoon against Buckingham, entitled the Duke of Buckingham's Litany, is printed in Poems on Affairs of State, iii. 93. A poem to the memory of the illustrious Prince George, Duke of Buckingham, is printed in Gildon's Chorus Poetarum, 1694, p. 75.] 

VILLIERS, GEORGE BUSSY, fourth and seventh  (1735–1805), born on 9 June 1735, was the only surviving son of William, third earl, by his wife Anne, daughter of Scroop Egerton, first duke of Bridgewater, and widow of Wriothesley Russell, third duke of Bedford. Edward Villiers, first earl of Jersey [q. v.], was his great-grandfather. In boyhood his tutor was William Whitehead [q. v.], the poet laureate. Returned to parliament for Tamworth on 28 June 1756, he was appointed a lord of the admiralty in 1761, and vice-chamberlain of the household in 1765, and, having thus vacated his seat at Tamworth, was elected for Aldborough in Yorkshire. On 18 March 1768 he was returned for Dover, a seat which he retained till his succession to the earldom on 28 Aug. 1769. Jersey also held the offices of extra lord of the bedchamber (1769–77), master of the buckhounds (1782–1783), and captain of the gentlemen pensioners (1783–90). Subsequently he became lord of the bedchamber and master of the horse to the Prince of Wales. He died on 22 Aug. 1805, being chiefly noted for his courtly manners. Mrs. Montague refers to him as ‘the Prince of Maccaronies.’ In March 1770 he was married to Frances (1753–1821), only daughter of Philip Twysden, bishop of Raphoe [see under ]. By her he had two sons and seven daughters. His eldest son, George Child-Villiers [q. v.], fifth earl, is separately noticed.

There is a portrait of the fourth earl as a child with his mother (full-lengths) at Middleton Park, painted by Hudson; also one of him as a man (three-quarter, seated) by Dance; and a head, painted by Hoppner, of his beautiful countess, whose relations with George IV have been investigated with more industry than accuracy by Robert Huish, Hannibal Evans Lloyd, and other chroniclers of the gossip of the period. There is a beautiful mezzotint by Thomas Watson of a portrait of the countess by Daniel Gardner.

[G. E. C[okayne]'s Peerage; Horace Walpole's Corresp. passim; Official Returns of Mem. Parl.; private papers at Middleton.] 

VILLIERS, GEORGE CHILD-, fifth and eighth  (1773–1859), born at Middleton Park on 19 Aug. 1773, was elder son of George Bussy Villiers, fourth earl [q. v.] He was educated at Harrow, and graduated M.A. from St. John's College, Cambridge, in 1794. He twice held the office of lord chamberlain of the household of William IV, in 1830 and 1834–5, and twice also that of master of the horse to Queen Victoria in 1841–6 and 1852. He was an ardent foxhunter; ‘Nimrod’ in his ‘Crack Riders of England’ refers to him as ‘not only one of the hardest, boldest, and most judicious, but perhaps the most elegant rider to hounds the world ever saw.’ For a long series of years, beginning in 1807, he was one of the chief pillars of the turf, breeding and training his own horses at his Oxfordshire seat, Middleton, among which were many celebrated winners, such as Cobweb, winner of the Oaks in 1824; Middleton, winner of the Derby in 1825; Mameluke, winner of the Derby in 1827; and Bay Middleton, winner of the Derby in 1836. Jersey received the honorary degree of D.C.L. at Oxford in 1812, was appointed a privy councillor in 1830, and a knight grand cross of the Guelphs of Hanover in 1834. He died at 38 Berkeley Square, London, on 3 Oct. 1859, and was buried at Middleton Stoney. He married at Gretna Green, on 23 May 1804, Sarah Sophia (1785–1867), eldest daughter of John Fane, tenth earl of Westmorland [q. v.], by Anne, daughter and sole heiress of the banker, Robert Child, of Osterley Park, Middlesex. He assumed the additional name of Child on 1 Dec. 1819. By his wife he had five sons and three daughters. The countess, who owned the chief interest in Child's bank by Temple Bar, was for many years a leader of the best society in London. She offered an asylum to Byron at Middleton Park in 1814–5, and is said to have suggested the characters of Lady St. Julians in Disraeli's ‘Coningsby’ and ‘Sibyl.’

There are several fine portraits of the fifth Countess of Jersey, including a full-length as a child by Romney, a full-length at the age of twenty-two by Lawrence, a head by Hoppner, all at Middleton; and a full-length by Gerard at Osterley. There are engravings by Henry Meyer, by Cochran, by Lewis, and by Ryall. Lady Jersey's correspondence, preserved at Middleton, in-