Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 61.djvu/385

 are her four silver tea-spoons, sugar-tongs, and portrait; probably that by Miss Reynolds, which was afterwards engraved (Speaker, 22 March 1890, pp. 311–12).

Johnson said: ‘Had she had good humour and prompt elocution, her universal curiosity and comprehensive knowledge would have made her the delight of all that knew her.’ Lady Knight, Miss Hawkins, Hannah More, Miss Talbot, and Hoole concur in praising her.

[Fenton's Pembrokeshire, pp. 197–200; Notes and Queries, 3rd ser. i. 421–2, v. 254–5; Gent. Mag. 1783, ii. 806; Nichols's Lit. Illustrations, v. 761–3, viii. 218–19; Nichols's Lit. Anecdotes, ii. 178–84; Boswell (Croker's edit. 1848), pp. 43, 74, 101, 181, 458, 740; Boswell, ed. Hill, i. 232–3, 241, 350, 393, 421, 463, ii. 5, 286, 427, iii. 48, 128, 132, iv. 235, v. 276; Johnson's Letters (ed. Hill), i. 53–7, 156, ii. 74–7, 295, 331–6; Johnsonian Miscellanies, ed. Hill, i. 114–15, 401–3, ii. 171–6, 217–18, 279; Roberts's Hannah More, i. 49; Letters of Mrs. Carter and Miss Talbot, ii. 221, 225, iii. 135–6; Cunningham's London, ed. Wheatley, i. 216–17, ii. 336, 354; Leslie and Taylor's Sir Joshua Reynolds, i. 121.]  WILLIAMS, CHARLES HANBURY (1708–1759), satirical writer and diplomatist, born probably at Pontypool on 8 Dec. 1708, was the third son of John Hanbury, known as Major Hanbury of Pont y Pool, or Pontypool, near Newport, Monmouthshire.

The father, John Hanbury (1664–1734) [q.v.], descended from Roger de Hanbury (fl. 1150), whose descendants were seated at Hanbury Hall in Worcestershire down to the middle of the sixteenth century. Capel Hanbury purchased an estate at Pontypool in 1565, and began developing the ironworks there during the last twenty years of Elizabeth's reign. He resided mainly at Kidderminster, but both he and his son John and his grandson Richard frequently inspected the works at Pontypool, where are several memorials of them. Capel Hanbury (1626–1704), son of the last-mentioned Richard, died and was buried at Kidderminster in January 1704, leaving the Pontypool estate to his son John. By his marriage in 1701 to Albinia, daughter of Sir John Selwyn of Matson (whose rank of ‘major’ was probably obtained in the militia), John Hanbury obtained a fortune, which he decided to expend upon developing his estate at Pontypool and the ironworks. He built a house and took up his residence on the spot, greatly increased the output of iron by means of improvements, and is said to have ‘invented the method of rolling iron plates by means of cylinders, and introduced the art of tinning into England.’ Through the interest of his wife's family he was elected M.P. for Gloucester in 1701, and represented the city in the three succeeding parliaments, but was defeated in 1715. His adhesion to the whig interest was confirmed by his second marriage, in July 1703, to Bridget (d. 1734), eldest daughter and coheiress of Sir Edward Ayscough, knt., of Stallingborough, Lincolnshire, a lady who was high in favour with the Duchess of Marlborough, and who also brought him a fortune (10,000l.) In March 1720 he was chosen M.P. for Monmouthshire, and continued to represent the county until his death. When the South Sea Company was reconstructed after the great crash of 1721, Hanbury was appointed one of the new directors, and on Marlborough's death in June 1722 he acted as one of his executors. He spoke little in parliament, but was chairman of several committees, and was respected for his business capacity. When the schism came in the whig party he opposed Walpole, voted against the Hessian troops in 1730, and the excise bill of 1733. This was one of his last appearances in the house. He died on 14 June 1734, and was buried in Trevethin church, Pontypool (see Pontypool and the Hanbury family in Walkinshaw's Local Register, 1875).

In 1720 he came in for a legacy of 70,000l. by the death of his friend Charles Williams of Caerleon, who had fled from England upon killing Morgan of Penrhos in a duel, and amassed a fortune in Russia. Hanbury smoothed the way for Williams's return to England, and Williams, to show his gratitude, stood godfather to the major's son Charles, and left the bulk of his fortune to his friend, with remainder to his godson, upon the condition that the latter should assume the name of Williams (cf., Westm. Abbey Registers, p. 300). This condition was fulfilled in 1729, when Charles Hanbury, having attained his majority, assumed the style of Charles Hanbury Williams, and received from his father the estate of Coldbrook Park, which had been purchased out of the Williams bequest.

As the prospective heir to a large estate, Charles was sent in 1720 to Eton, where he numbered among his friends Henry Fox, Thomas Winnington, Lyttelton, Ralph Thicknesse, and Henry Fielding. Fielding, according to Walpole, depended on Williams for a guinea whenever he needed one, and regularly submitted to him his plays. The manuscript of one of these, ‘The Father, or the Good-natured Man,’ was lost by Sir Charles in 1754, and was not actually 