Page:The Complete Peerage Ed 2 Vol 4.djvu/446

 EARLDOM XII. 428 DORSET 15 Sep. 1730; M.P. (Whig) for East Grinstead 1 734-42, (") for Sussex 1 742-47, for Old Sarum 1747-54, and for East Grinstead (again) 1761-65; a Lord of the Treasury, 1743-47; Master of the Horse to the Prince of Wales, 1747-51; P.C. 10 Feb. 1766; Lord Lieut, of Kent, 1766-69. He m., 30 Oct. 1744, in Arlington Str., GracCjC') only da. and h. of Richard (Boyle), 2nd and last Viscount Shannon [I.], by his 2nd wife, Grace, da. and coh. of John Senhouse, of Netherhall, Cumberland. She, who was Mistress of the Robes and a Lady of the Bedchamber to the Princess of Wales from 1743 till her death, d. in Arlington Str., 10, and was l>ur. 17 May 1763, at Walton-on-Thames, Surrey. Will pr. 1763. lie d. s.p., 6, and was lur. 11 Jan. 1769, at Withyam, aged 57. Admon. 19 May 1770. DUKEDOM. 1 3 and 9. John Frederick. (Sackville), DuK.E OF Dorset, i^c, nephew and h., being /• only s. and h. of Lord John Philip Sackville, ' "■ by Frances, da. of John (Gower), ist Earl GowER, which John Philip was next br. to the last Duke, and d. 3 Dec. 1765, aged 52. He was i". 2 5 Mar., and I'ap. 24 Apr. 1 745, at St. James's, Westm.; ed. at Westm. school; M.P. (Whig) for Kent 1 768-69 ;(') Lord Lieut, of Kent, 1769-97; Col. in the Army (during service) 1779; P.C. 1 1 Feb. 1782; Captain of the Yeomen of the Guard, 1 782-83 ; Ambassador to Paris, 1 783-89 ;('') nom. K.G. 9 Apr. 1788, but never installed; Lord Steward of the Household, 1789-99. He m., 4 Jan. 1790, at Knole in Sevenoaks, Arabella Diana, ist da. and coh. of Sir Charles Cope, 2nd Bart, (of Brewern), by Catherine, da. of Sir Cecil Bishopp, Bart. He i/. 19 July 1 799, at Knole, aged 54, and was bur. at Withyam. (') M.I. Will pr. Aug. greatest dignity in his appearance, was in private the greatest lover of low humour and buffoonery. " Lord Shelburne described him as " in all respects a perfect English courtier and nothing else: he never had an opinion about public affairs." V.G. (*) He entered Pari, as a supporter of Walpole, and was one of the Government candidates for Kent at the General Election of 1734, when he was defeated, but was returned at the same time for the family borough of East Grinstead. At a later date, after Walpole's fall, he attached himself to the "Leicester House" party. In the House of Lords he acted with the Rockingham Whigs. V.G. C") " Lady Middlesex is very short, very plain, and very yellow; a vain girl, full of Greek and Latin, and music and painting, but neither mischievous nor political." (Horace Walpole, George II, vol. i, p. 76). She is said to have been mistress of Frederick, Prince of Wales. V.G. (') As a peer, after serving in office under the Whig ministers Rockingham and Shelburne, he opposed the Coalition of 1783, supported Pitt, and became a Tory. V.G. {^) According to the unfavourable account of him in The Jockey Club (pub. i 792), he was " arrogant and haughty, ignorant and illiterate . . . under his roof fidlers and buffoons, w — res and parasites, sharpers and knaves were always welcome. . . . Billiards and hazard engrossed almost the whole time of our A — b — r, unless when he relaxed from the fatigues of gaming in the arms of beauty." V.G. (') About 1775 the notorious Nancy Parsons, who had been the Duke of