The Stately Homes of England

by Llewellynn Frederick William Jewitt; S. C. Hall

The Entrance Gates.

He was succeeded by his second son by his first wife, Sir William Cavendish, as second Earl of Devonshire. This nobleman—who had been under the tuition of the famous philosopher, Thomas Hobbes—married Christiana, only daughter of Edward, Lord Bruce of Kinloss, a kinswoman of the king, “who gave her with his own hand, and made her fortune ten thousand pounds.” By her he had issue three sons and one daughter, and was succeeded by his eldest son, William, as third Earl of Devonshire, who was only ten years of age at his father’s death. This nobleman married Elizabeth Cecil, daughter of the Earl of Salisbury, by whom he had two sons, William (who succeeded him) and Charles, and one daughter. William, fourth Earl of Devonshire, before succeeding to the title, was one of the train-bearers to the king on his coronation, and sat in the Long Parliament as member for Derbyshire. His lordship was one of the principals in bringing about “the Glorious Revolution” of 1688, and placing William III. on the throne; the place of meeting for plotting for the great and good change being on Whittington Moor, not many miles from Chatsworth, at a small cottage-inn belonging to the Duke of Devonshire, known as the “Cock and Pynot” (pynot being the provincial name of the magpie), still existing, but recently partly rebuilt. The “plotting parlour,” as the room in this cottage is called, in which the Earl of Devonshire met Earl Danby, John d’Arcy, and others, to plan the revolution, is held in veneration, and the very chair in which the earl sat during the deliberations is preserved by his Grace at Hardwick Hall, where it has been taken, and is, indeed, a most interesting historical relic. The earl, who, as we have already stated, was the rebuilder of Chatsworth, married Mary, daughter of the Duke of Ormonde, by whom he had issue three sons, William (his successor), Henry, and James; and one daughter, Elizabeth. His lordship was, in 1694, advanced by William III. to the dignity of Marquis of Hartington and Duke of Devonshire. He died in 1707, and was succeeded, as second duke and fifth earl, by his son, William Cavendish, captain of the yeomen of the guard to the king, who succeeded to all his father’s appointments, including being Lord Steward of the Household, Privy Councillor, Lord Warden and Chief Justice in Eyre, Lord Lieutenant, K.G., &c.; he was also made one of the Regents of the kingdom. His grace married Rachel, daughter of William, Lord Russel, and on his death was succeeded by his son William as third Duke of Devonshire.

The third Duke, who became Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal, Lord Steward of the Household, Lord Justice for the administration of government during the king’s absence, Lord Lieutenant of Derbyshire, &c., married Catherine, heiress of John Hoskins, by whom he had a numerous family. He was succeeded by his son—

William, as fourth Duke of Devonshire, who had, during his father’s lifetime, been called to the Upper House by the title, hitherto of courtesy, of Marquis of Hartington. His grace was made Master of the Horse, a Privy Councillor, one of the Lords of the Regency, Governor of the County of Cork, Lord High Treasurer of Ireland, Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, First Commissioner of the Treasury, and Chamberlain of the Household, &c. He married Charlotte, daughter, and ultimately heiress, of Richard Boyle, Earl of Burlington and Cork, by which alliance—the lady being Baroness Clifford in her own right—the barony of Clifford came into the Cavendish family. The issue of this marriage was three sons and one daughter—viz., William, who succeeded to the title and estates; Lord Richard, who died unmarried; Lord George Augustus Henry, who was created Earl of Burlington, from whom the present noble Duke of Devonshire is descended; and Lady Dorothy, married to the Duke of Portland.

William, fifth Duke of Devonshire, married—first, the Lady Georgiana, daughter of Earl Spencer, one of the most accomplished and elegant women of the time, and who is best and most emphatically known as “the beautiful Duchess,” by whom he had issue one son, William Spencer Cavendish (who succeeded him), and two daughters, the Lady Georgiana, married to the Earl of Carlisle; and the Lady Harriet Elizabeth, married to Earl Granville. His grace married secondly the Lady Elizabeth Foster, daughter of the Earl of Bristol, and widow of John Thomas Foster, Esq. On his death, in 1811, the title and estates passed to his only son—

William Spencer Cavendish, sixth Duke and ninth Earl of Devonshire, one of the most kindly, generous, and liberal-minded men, and one of the most zealous patrons of art and literature. He was born in Paris in 1790, and, besides holding the office of Lord High Chamberlain, &c., went on a special embassy to Russia from the British court. This embassy his grace conducted on a scale of princely magnificence at his own charge, and concluded it to the entire satisfaction of both nations. By him the modern improvements of Chatsworth were, with master-mind and lavish hand, planned and carried out. His grace, who never married, died in January, 1858, and was succeeded in his titles and estates—with the exception of the barony of Clifford, which fell into abeyance between his sisters—by his second cousin, the present noble head of the house, who was grandson of the first Earl of Burlington. The sixth Duke—the “Good Duke,” for by that title he is known best, and it is as amply merited by the present noble peer—was, by express wish, buried in the churchyard at Edensor, just outside the park at Chatsworth, where a plain and perfectly simple coped tomb, with foliated cross, covers his remains.

The present noble owner of princely Chatsworth, William Cavendish, seventh Duke of Devonshire, Marquis of Hartington, Earl of Devonshire, Earl of Burlington, Baron Cavendish of Hardwick, Baron Cavendish of Keighley, &c., Knight of the Garter, LL.D., F.R.S., Lord Lieutenant and Custos Rotulorum of the County of Derby, Chancellor of the University of Cambridge, High Steward of the Borough of Derby, &c., was born 27th April, 1808. His grace is the eldest son of William Cavendish, eldest son (by his wife the Lady Elizabeth Compton, daughter and heiress of Charles, seventh Earl of Northampton), of George Augustus Henry Cavendish (third son of the fourth Duke of Devonshire, by his wife the Lady Charlotte Boyle, as already stated), first Earl of Burlington, and Baron Cavendish, of Keighley, which titles were created in his favour in 1831: he died in 1834. William Cavendish, just referred to, was born in 1783, and in 1807 married the Hon. Louisa O’Callaghan, eldest daughter of Cornelius, first Baron Lismore, by whom he had issue three sons and one daughter, viz., the present Duke of Devonshire; Lord George Henry Cavendish, the present highly-respected M.P. for North Derbyshire, of Ashford Hall, in that county, married to Lady Louisa, youngest daughter of the second Earl of Harewood; Lady Fanny Cavendish, married to Frederick John Howard, Esq.; and Lord Richard Cavendish, all of whom are still living. Mr. Cavendish died in 1812, before his eldest child, the present Duke, was four years of age, his wife surviving him until 1864. His grace was educated at Eton, and at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated as M.A., and was Second Wrangler, Senior Smith’s Prizeman, and in the first class of the Classical Tripos, 1829. In the same year he became M.P. for the University of Cambridge, which seat he held until 1831, when he was returned for Malton, and in the same year, as Lord Cavendish, for Derbyshire, and at the general election in the following year, for North Derbyshire, which constituency he represented until 1834, when he succeeded his grandfather as second Earl of Burlington. In 1856 he was, as Earl of Burlington, made Lord-Lieutenant of Lancashire, a post he held until 1858, when, on succeeding to the Dukedom of Devonshire, he was appointed Lord-Lieutenant of Derbyshire. From 1836 to 1858 he was Chancellor of the University of London, and, besides many other important appointments, is at the present time President of Owen’s College, Manchester.

His grace, at that time Mr. Cavendish, married, 1829, his cousin, the Lady Blanche Georgiana Howard, fourth daughter of the sixth Earl of Carlisle, by his wife the Lady Georgiana Dorothy Cavendish, daughter of the fifth Duke of Devonshire. By this beautiful and accomplished, as well as truly estimable lady, who died in 1840, his grace had issue four sons and one daughter, who, with the exception of the eldest, are still living. These are—

1st. Spencer Compton Cavendish, Marquis of Hartington, M.P., P.C., LL.D., was born in 1833, and is unmarried. The Marquis was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, where he graduated as B.A. in 1852, M.A. in 1854, and LL.D. in 1862. He holds at the present time the responsible post of Her Majesty’s Chief Secretary of State for Ireland, and has successively held office as a Lord of the Admiralty, Under-Secretary of State for War, Secretary of State for War, and Postmaster-General, and was attached to Lord Granville’s special mission to Russia.