"His Lordship married, on January 11, 1755, Frances Catharine, only daughter and heir of Sir Charles Gunter Nicholl, Knight of the Bath; and by her had issue eight sons and one daughter.
"His Lordship is also President of the London Dispensary; Vice-President of the Foundling and Lock Hospitals; Recorder of Litchfield; LL. D., and F. R. S."
The armorial inscription is:
"GAUDET TENTAMINE VIRTUS."
Forbes' Life of Dr. Beattie gives the following interesting paragraph:
"His Majesty (George III.) asked what I thought of my new acquaintance, Lord Dartmouth. I said, there was something in his air and manner which seemed to me not only agreeable, but very enchanting, and that he seemed to me to be one of the best of men; a sentiment in which both their majesties heartily joined. 'They say that Lord Dartmouth is an enthusiast,' said the king, 'but surely he says nothing on the subject of religion but what every one may and ought to say on the subject of religion.'"
Of John Thornton, the devout Episcopalian, the kinsman of Wilberforce, and the most munificent of Dartmouth's early benefactors, almost the sole supporter of the founder for several years, Rev. Thomas Scott, in a memorial "Discourse" says:
"It is worthy of observation, that this friend of mankind, in the exercise of his beneficence, not only contributed his money (which often is done to very little purpose) but he devoted his time and thoughts very much to the same object; doing good was the great business of his life, and may more properly be said to have been his occupation, than even his mercantile engagements, which were uniformly considered as subservient to that nobler design.
"To form and execute plans of usefulness; to superintend, arrange, and improve upon those plans; to lay aside such as did not answer, and to substitute others; to form acquaintance, and collect intelligence for this purpose; to select proper agents, and to carry on correspondence, in order to ascertain that his bounties were well applied: These and similar concerns were the hourly occupations of his life, and the ends of living, which he proposed to himself; nor did he think that any part of his time was spent either happily or innocently, if it were not some way instrumental, directly or indirectly, to the furtherance of useful designs."
"Abiel Chandler was a native of Concord, N. H. In his childhood his parents removed to Fryeburg, Maine, where he labored on a farm till he was twenty-one years of age. He was graduated at Harvard College in 1806, and spent the next eleven years in teaching at Salem and Newburyport, Mass. To the good reputation which he had previously gained as a student, he added that of an excellent preceptor. A little later he commenced a mercantile life at Boston. He was of the house of Chandler and Howard, and afterwards Chandler, Howard, and Company, for more than a quarter of a century, when he retired with a fortune. To numerous relatives he made liberal bequests, with great delicacy and judgment. After his legacy to the college, the residue of his property was bequeathed to the New Hampshire Asylum for the Insane.