Frederick Nassau de Zuylestein,
Earl of Rochford.
Frederick Nassau de Zuylestein, third Earl of Rochford, was born in 1683, and succeeded to the title in 1710. His occupation of Rivers House began some time before 1723, the ratebook for the latter date giving his name in connection with the house, which continued to be his town residence[[328]] until the end of his life. He died on 14th June, 1738, at his house in Great Queen Street,[[327]] and his wife, with but little delay, married again,[[329]] her second husband being the Rev. Philip Carter. Early in the following year Rivers House was sold[[330]] and demolished, two houses being erected on the frontage to Great Queen Street.
The names of the occupiers of these two houses (Nos. 59 and 60) up to 1800 were as follows:—
| No. 59. | No. 60. | ||
|---|---|---|---|
| 1743–46. | Mrs. Clive. | 1743–46. | Matthew Hone. |
| 1747. | Cath. Clive. | 1747–52. | Edw. Borrett. |
| 1748–53. | Eliz. Hill. | 1753. | W. G. Freeman. |
| 1754–57. | —— Cheeke. | 1754–60. | Joseph Blisset. |
| 1758. | Mrs. Pont. | 1760–74. | John Twelves. |
| 1758–62. | Thos. Webb. | 1775. | John Cooper. |
| 1763–68. | Augustin Noverre. | 1776–79. | Thos. Cooper. |
| 1768–79. | Thos. Vaughan. | 1780–81. | —— Plowden. |
| 1779–82. | Miss Savill. | 1781–84. | —— Burnett. |
| 1782–84. | —— Hughes. | 1784–95. | Miss Ride. |
| 1784–85. | —— Garnault. | 1795–99. | Wm. Byrn. |
| 1785–99. | John Hughes. | 1799– | John Crace. |
| 1799– | —— Jackson. |
The Catherine Clive, who is shown by the ratebooks of 1743 to 1747 as the occupier of No. 59, Great Queen Street, is almost certainly the famous singer and actress usually known as Kitty Clive, but apart from Heckethorn’s statement,[[331]] for which no authority is quoted, that about the year 1733 she was probably living at No. 56, no evidence to confirm the fact of her residence in the street has been found. She was born in 1711, her father, William Raftor, being an Irish lawyer, who supported James II. at the battle of the Boyne, and afterwards settled in London. Kitty’s lack of refinement and even of the rudiments of education suggests that her training as a child was neglected, but the story that while engaged in cleaning the steps of a lodging-house she attracted the notice of some actors under whose auspices she was introduced to the stage is open to considerable doubt. Her marriage to George Clive, a barrister, was a mistake, and the parties agreed to separate. They were living together in 1734 when Fielding wrote of her in the preface to the Intriguing Chambermaid. “Great favourite as you ... are with your audience you would be much more so ... did they see you ... acting in real life the part of the best wife, the best daughter, the best sister, and the best friend.” She acted generally at Drury Lane, being almost entirely in Garrick’s company from 1746 until her retirement in 1769. Although she excelled in comedy and character parts of middle and low life, she occasionally essayed work of a higher character, as, for instance, when she sang the music of “Delilah” at the first production in 1742, of Handel’s Samson. On her retirement she withdrew to a house at Strawberry Hill, which Horace Walpole had given her some years before,[[332]] and here she died in 1785. Johnson had a high opinion of her acting, and his opinion of her as a woman is shown by his remarks to Boswell. “Clive, sir, is a good thing to sit by; she always understands what you say.... In the sprightliness of humour I have never seen her equalled.”[[333]]
Thomas Vaughan, nicknamed “Dapper” by Colman, was a mediocre dramatist of the latter part of the eighteenth and the beginning of the nineteenth centuries. One of his chief plays, The Hotel; or the Double Valet, has the preface dated: “Great Queen Street, 2nd December, 1776.” Vaughan is said to have been the original of Dangle in Sheridan’s Critic.
House adorned with the Queen’s statue.
It has been seen[[334]] that the house adjoining Rivers House on the east was built in 1637. Although not certain, it seems very probable that the first occupant was the Earl of Northumberland. It is known that Northumberland’s house adjoined Conway House,[[335]] the next in order to the east from that which is here in question, but there is no definite evidence as to whether it lay to the east or west of it. It would, however, seem that the house to the east was not built until 1640,[[336]] and as Northumberland was certainly in residence in Great Queen Street in 1638 it follows, if the assumption be correct, that his house adjoined Conway House on the west.
Algernon Percy, tenth Earl of Northumberland, was born in London in 1602, and succeeded to the title in November, 1632. He was much favoured by Charles I., who was most anxious to secure his support, and who, as the king himself afterwards declared, “courted him as his mistress.”[[337]] He received the Order of the Garter in 1635. In 1636, and again in 1637, he was appointed admiral of the fleet raised by means of ship money. In March, 1638, he was made Lord High Admiral of England; in July of the same year he was placed on the committee for Scottish affairs; and in the following March was appointed general of the forces south of the Trent and a member of the Council of Regency. He had taken up his residence in Great Queen Street some time before November, 1638, for, beginning in that month,[[338]] there are many letters extant, written by him or on his behalf, headed “Queen Street,” “Earl of Northumberland’s house in Queen Street,”[[339]] “My house in Queen Street.”[[340]] The last that has been discovered is dated 10th June, 1640.[[341]] In February of the latter year he was appointed general of the forces raised for the second Scottish War, but he fell ill in August and his place was taken by Strafford. Always dissatisfied with the king’s policy, Northumberland showed himself more and more in sympathy with Parliament as the conflict drew near, and his position secured to the parliamentary leaders the control of the navy, his dismissal by the king in June, 1642, coming too late. From this time until the king’s death, Northumberland conscientiously acted the role of peacemaker. He strongly opposed the king’s trial and after its tragic conclusion, held entirely aloof from public affairs. On the Restoration he was sworn a member of the privy council, and was appointed lord-lieutenant of Sussex and of Northumberland, but took no part in politics. He died in 1668.