Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 1 Vol 7.djvu/322

 320 SUNDERLAND. IV. 1702. 3. Charles (Spencer), Earl of Sunderland, &c., 2d but only surv. s. and fa. ; 6. about 1675 ; stifled Loud Spencer, 16SS— 1702( a ) ; was M.P. for Tiverton, 1695— 1 702 ; sue. to the peerage as above, 2S Sep. 1702; cr. LL.D of Cambridge, 16 April 1705; Envoy to Vienna, June tj Nov, 1 705( b ) ; a Commissi-, for the Union [S.], 1 706 ; P.O., 1 706 ; and See. of State for the South, 1706, till his dismissal iu 1710( c ). At the accession of Geo. I., he came again into power ; P.C., 1714 ; L. Privy Seal, 1715-16 ; Vice Treasurer of Ireland for life, 1716 ; See. of State for the North 1717-lS( d ) ; I- President of the Council, 171S-19, and First Lord of the Treasury {Prime Minuter), 1718-21{") ; one of the Lords Justices (Regents) of the Realm in 1719 and 17-0, but was involved in the disgrace attending the South Sea scheme iu 172! ; el. and inv. KG., 21 Nov. 1719, and inst. 2-1 May 1720; Groom of the Stole ami first Gent, of the Bedchamber, 1720. He iii . firstly 12 Jan. 169-1/5, ( f ) Arabella (a fortune of £25,000), 5th and yst da. aud coheir of Henry (Cavendish), 2d Dl'KB ok NEWCASTLE, by Frances, da. of the Hun. William PiEKiiKrONT. She, who was b. 19 Aug. 1673. d. s.p.m. of the small-pox (as Lady Spencer), -I and was bur. 10 June 1698, at Bringtoti. He wi. secondly 2, 12, or 16 Jan. 1699/1700(8) Anne (a fortune of £20,000), 2nd da. and coheir of the celebrated John (Chukchim.), I)L*KE OF MaBLBOBOUOB, by Sarah, da. and coheir of Richard Jennings. She d. 15 and was bur. 24 April 1716, at l!rington.( h ) Adman. Aug. 1 7 1 tJ. He m. thirdly 5 Dec. 1717, Judith, da. anil coheir of Benjamin TlCHBOllNK (j r. or. uf Henry, Bauds Fkbiiabd ok Be.U'I.IEU [I.]), by Elizabeth, da. of Edward G inns, of Gloucester.(') He d. 19 April anil was bur. 1 May 1722, at Bringlon. aged about 17.( k ) Will pr. 1723. His widow hi. 10 Doe. 1721, the Ht. Hon. Sir Robert SCTtOJ, ( ft ) " A youth of extraordinary hopes, vt-ry learneil of bis age and ingenious," says Evelyn, but, says Macaulay, "the precocious maturity of the young man's intellectual anil moral character excited hopes which were not destined to he realised." ( b ) "The knot of five Whig Peers— the Junto as it was commonly called— which governed the Whig party at that time [1705] were Somers, Halifax, Orfonl, Wharton, and Sunderland. Of these five the first four have been portrayed by Lord M icaulay ' [Stanhope's " History of England," 1701—1713. wh" adds, as to Sunderland, that he has " at some length" sketched his character iu the " liitt. since (Ac peace oj Utrecht" vol, i, p. 353], ( c ) The powerful influence of the Duke and Duchess of Marlborough, his wife's parents, was exerted in vain on his behalf. (d) ''The intrigues by which he got this ollico away from Lord Townshend, are fully described by Coxe." [Collins]. ('•) [n the ministry of Sunderland and Stanhope, a bill was introduced, in 1 7 1 f. 6* regulating the creation of peerages, which, if passed lit was rejected in the Commons by "269 to 177), would have converted the House of Lords into a close corporation. ( f ) Evelyn writes of this as a " happy marriage, to a great Lady, of as great fortune, great prudence, and great beauty." (8) Luttrell gives the date in one place as "Thursday, 14 Sep. 1699," tho' in another as " 2 Jan. 1699/1700 j" other authorities give it as 12 and 16 Jan." (h) Tho' very benatiru.1 she was of small size, and was consequently called "the little Whig." [Mrs. Jameson's " Court Beauties."] (') Mrs. Delany {"Life," fie., vol. i,) says that "she was very pretty, tall, and of a good figure and very sensible aud agreeable, tho' so shy and bashful that she by no means did herself justice." ( k ) Macky's gives a high character of him when " turned 30 " which, even if then true, was certainly not maintained (see note "a" above), indeed Swift has emphatically put " no" to the " virtue " and " good sense " with which be is there credited. He was, says Macaulay [vol. v, p. 4], "a Whig, unhappily for the Whig party, which before the unhonoured and unlamented close of his life, was more than once brought to the verge of ruin by his violent temper and crooked politics." Tho,' his Whiggisrn, unlike the " languid, speculative" theory of his father, was "ardent," it was " corrupt, degen- erate, narrow, and oligarchical." It certainly never hindered him from intriguing with the Tories and even with the Jacobites, with whom latterly be was " a great favourite. [Coxe]. His character " at some length " is sketched by Earl Stanhope in his But since the peace of Utrecht " [vol. i, p. 353]. He was a great collector of books, forming the " Sunderland library " long kept at Blenheim, a taste which was inherited in an even larger manner by his great-grandson, Earl Spencer. His portrait "after J. Richardson," is engraved in " Doyle"