count Sondes, of Lees Court, and EARL OF FEVERSHAM, with remainder, failing his own male issue, to Lewis, Lord Duras, the husband of his elder daughter. His lordship m. first, Jane, daughter and heir of Sir Ralph Freeman, Knt., by whom he had three sons, Freeman, who died young. George, inhumanly murdered in his bed by his younger brother. Freeman, who suffered death for the atrocious deed of fratricide. The earl espoused, secondly, Mary, daughter of Sir William Villiers, of Brokesby, in the county of Leicester, Bart., and had two daughters, the guards. In 1776 he removed with his father to STANMORE, having joined that gentleman in obtaining an act of parliament to authorise the sale of Leybourne to James Hawley, Esq., M.D. and F.R.S., which seat is now the residence of Dr. Hawley's great grandson, Sir Joseph-Henry Hawley, Bart. Mr. Whitworth's first diplomatic employment was at the court of Poland in 1786. Warsaw was then the centre of intrigues. A new partition of Poland happened to be in contemplation, and the generous effort for national independence, sealed then, as recently, the doom of this valiant and noble people. Mr. Whitworth was recalled from Poland in 1788, and accredited envoy extraordinary Mary, m. to Lewis, Lord Duras, (see that dig- and plenipotentiary to the court of Russia. In nity,) and died 8. p. Catherine m. to Lewis Watson, Lord Rockingham. This lady succeeded, on the decease of her sister issueless, to the entire fortune of her father. His lordship d. in 1677, when his honours devolved, according to the limitation, upon his son-in-law, Lord Duras. ARMS.-Ar. three blackmoor's heads couped ppr. between two chevronels, sa. WHITWORTH-VISCOUNT WHITWORTH, EARL WHITWORTH. Viscounty, Earldom, By Letters (14th June, 1813. The WHITWORTHS, an ancient Staffordshire family, produced a nobleman of the kingdom of Ireland in the beginning of the last century, WHITWORTH, Baron Whitworth, of Galway, between whom and the eminent person of whom we are about to treat there are many points of singular similarity. Like his noble kinsman, (our English lord,) he was celebrated for the number and importance of his embassies, like him created Baron WHITWORTH, of Galway, and as if to complete the resemblance, died in the year 1725, (the last lord it will be seen died in 1825,) leaving no heir to his title. The brother of this Lord Whitworth, of Galway, WHITWORTH, Esq., who was M.P. for Minehead, surveyor-general of woods and forests, and secretary of Barbadoes, settled at Leybourne, in Kent. His son, SIR CHARLES WHITWORTH, Knt., M.P. for Minehead, m. in 1749, Miss Shelley, eldest daughter of Richard Shelley, Esq., commissioner of the Stamp Office, and had three sons and four daughters, the eldest of whom, CHARLES WHITWORTH, Esq., was b. in 1754, and educated at Tunbridge school under the poet Cawthorne. Soon after he had completed his studies, Mr. Whitworth obtained a commission in 1793, when the English cabinet had embarked in the confederacy against France, it was deemed proper to invest the ambassador at St. Petersburgh with the Order of the Bath, to add to the dignity of his mission; and Sir Charles Whitworth from that moment assumed a conspicuous position in the field of European politics. Upon his return from this embassy he was created, 21st March, 1800, a peer of Ireland, by the title of Baron Whitworth, of Newport Pratt, in the county of Galway; and his lordship repaired soon after as plenipotentiary extraordinary, to Copenhagen. His next mission, having been previously sworn of the privy council, was in 1802, to the consular court of France, where his sojourn was but of brief duration. After numerous preliminary conferences with Talleyrand on the subject of the retention of Malta by the British government, Napoleon sent at length for the English ambassador, and a long and important interview ensued, unsatisfactory to both parties. A subsequent conference took place, when the FIRST CONSUL instead of healing, appears to have widened the breach, and his lordship's prompt and dignified repression of Napoleon's intemperate address before a full court, and all the foreign ambassadors, has been celebrated throughout Europe. He soon afterwards left Paris, and for the succeeding ten years remained in retirement. On the 2d March, 1813, Lord Whitworth was made a lord of the bedchamber, and created on the 14th June following, a peer of the united kingdom, as VISCOUNT WHITWORTH, of Adbaston: within two months after, he succeeded the Duke of Richmond, as VICEROY OF IRELAND, and he was advanced on the 25th November, 1816, to the dignities of BARON ADBASTON, and EARL WHITWORTH. He continued in the government of Ireland until 1817. His lordship m. 7th April, 1801, .Arabella-Diana, eldest daughter and co-heir of Sir Charles Cope, Bart., of Brewern, in Oxfordshire, and widow of John-Frederick, third Duke of Dorset, but had no issue. He d. 12th May, 1825, when all his honours became EXTINCT, and his estates devolved upon his widow, the Duchess of Dorset, at whose decease in the August following, they passed to her two daughters and co-heirs, MARY, Countess of Plymouth, and ELIZABETH, Countess of Delaware. |