Topham Beauclerk
Topham Beauclerk | |
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Born | |
Died | 11 March 1780 Great Russell Street, London | (aged 40)
Nationality | British |
Alma mater | Trinity College, Oxford |
Spouse | |
Children |
|
Parents |
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Relatives | Robert Herbert, 12th Earl of Pembroke (grandson) Aubrey Beauclerk (grandson) |
Topham Beauclerk (/boʊˈklɛər/ boh-KLAIR; 22 December 1739 – 11 March 1780) was a celebrated wit and a friend of Dr Johnson and Horace Walpole.
Early life
Topham Beauclerk was born on 22 December 1739 in
Between 1753 and 1757, Topham Beauclerk probably attended
Friendships and anecdotes
Beauclerk entertained Dr Johnson at his home in Old Windsor for a number of weeks. He appears several times in James Boswell's Life of Samuel Johnson. As Bennet Langton records: "His affection for Topham Beauclerk was so great, that when Beauclerk was labouring under that severe illness which at last occasioned his death, Johnson said (with a voice faultering [sic] with emotion), 'Sir, I would walk to the extent of the diameter of the earth to save Beauclerk'." (Boswell 1672). The artist Joseph Farington records Horace Walpole as making the following remarks regarding Beauclerk:
Lord Orford mentioned many particulars relative to the late Mr. Topham Beauclerc. He said He was the worst tempered man He ever knew. Lady Di passed a most miserable life with him. Lord O, out of regard to her invited them occasionally to pass a few days at Strawberry Hill. They slept in separate beds. Beauclerc was remarkably filthy in his person which generated vermin. He took Laudanum regularly in vast quantities. He seldom rose before one or two o'clock. His principal delight was in disputing on subjects that occurred, this He did accutely. Before He died He asked pardon of Lady Di, for his ill usage of her. He had one son and two daughters by Lady Di. One married Lord Herbert, the second went abroad with her Brother, Lord Bolingbroke [i.e. George St John, 3rd Viscount Bolingbroke].
Personal life
On 12 March 1768, Beauclerk was married to the Viscountess Bolingbroke, Lady Diana St John (1734-1808), former Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Charlotte. A member of the Spencer family, she was the daughter of Charles Spencer, 3rd Duke of Marlborough and the Hon. Elizabeth Trevor. Before their marriage, Diana had been married to Frederick St John, 2nd Viscount Bolingbroke in 1757. This marriage, which gave her two sons, including George St John, 3rd Viscount Bolingbroke, was unhappy and her husband was notoriously unfaithful. In February 1768, he petitioned for divorce on grounds of adultery ("criminal conversation"). The petition required an act of parliament, which was passed the next month. Soon thereafter she married Beauclerk. They had four children together:
- Anne Beauclerk (b. c. 1764), who died young.
- Elisabeth Beauclerk (1766–1793), a twin who married her first cousin, George Herbert, 11th Earl of Pembroke.
- Anne Mary Beauclerk (1766–1851), a twin who famously had a long-term relationship with her elder half-brother George St John. After he abandoned her to marry a Belgian Baroness, she married Bavarian Count Franz von Jenison-Walworth, son of Count Francis Jenison, in 1797.
- Charles George Beauclerk (1774–1846), briefly an MP; he married Emily Charlotte "Mimie" Ogilvie (1778–1832), daughter of William Ogilvie and Emily FitzGerald, Duchess of Leinster, in 1799.[8]
From 1772 to 1776 he lived at 3
Descendants
Through his daughter Elizabeth, he was grandfather of four, including Lady Diana Herbert (who married Welbore Agar, 2nd Earl of Normanton), and Robert Herbert, 12th Earl of Pembroke.
Through his daughter Mary's relationship with the
Through his son Charles, he was a grandfather to Aubrey Beauclerk (1801–1854), MP for East Surrey.[8]
References
- ^ a b Noy (2016), pp.15-16
- ^ Noy (2016), p.2
- ^ The Third Register Book of the Parish of St James in the Liberty of Westminster For Births & Baptisms. 1723-1741. 19 January 1739.
- ^ Noy (2016), p.11
- ^ Noy (2016), p.14
- ^ Noy (2016), p.252
- ^ W Edward Riley; Laurence Gomme (1914). "Nos. 100-102, Great Russell Street". British History Online - Survey of London.
- ^ a b "BEAUCLERK, Charles George (1774-1845), of South Lodge, St. Leonards, nr. Horsham, Suss. | History of Parliament Online". www.historyofparliamentonline.org. Retrieved 27 May 2018.
- ^ 'Adelphi Terrace', in Survey of London: Volume 18, St Martin-in-The-Fields II: the Strand, ed. G H Gater and E P Wheeler (London, 1937), pp. 103-108. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vol18/pt2/pp103-108 [accessed 16 October 2017].
- OCLC 1190826507.
- )
Bibliography
- Adamson, Donald and Beauclerk Dewar, Peter, The House of Nell Gwyn. The Fortunes of the Beauclerk Family, 1670-1974, London: William Kimber, 1974, pp. 67–77.
- Boswell, James. Life of Johnson, ed. R. W. Chapman, intro. Pat Rogers. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1998.
- Farington, Joseph. The Farington Diary by Joseph Farington, R.A., edited by James Grieg.
- Noy, David (2016). Dr. Johnson's friend and Robert Adam's client Topham Beauclerk. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. )