“orthoepist,” was born in Dublin in 1751. When he was nineteen
years of age, his father settled at Bath. In the winter of 1773,
soon after his marriage with Miss Linley, the couple came to live
in London,[300] and Sheridan essayed to earn his living by
writing. In January, 1775, _The Rivals_ appeared, and by the end
of the year Sheridan had become a favourite with playgoers. Next
year he became manager and part-proprietor of Drury Lane Theatre.
In 1791–4 the theatre was pulled down and rebuilt, and the
expenditure greatly exceeding the estimate, Sheridan undertook to
pay the liabilities thus incurred. The destruction of the new
theatre by fire, however, in 1809, involved him in financial
troubles which continued until his death. As a dramatic writer he
far excelled all his contemporaries. His chief plays were: _The
Rivals_, _St. Patrick’s Day_, _The Duenna_, _A Trip to
Scarborough_, _The School for Scandal_, _The Critic_, _Pizarro_.
From 1780 he was no less prominent in political than in literary
life. In September of that year he entered the House of Commons as
member for Stafford, and soon became noted as an orator. For two
periods of short duration in 1782–3 he was respectively
under-secretary for foreign affairs and secretary to the Treasury,
and in 1806–7 was treasurer to the Navy. Among his most noteworthy
oratorical achievements must be placed his speeches in connection
with the trial of Warren Hastings. His last speech in Parliament
was made in June, 1812. Soon after his entry into Parliament he
had become personally acquainted with the Prince of Wales, and
ever after acted as his confidential adviser. Sheridan died in
Savile Row in July, 1816, and was awarded a public funeral in
Westminster Abbey.
His occupation of the house in Great Queen Street is shown by the
parish ratebooks to have lasted from 1777 to 1782.[301] The former
date is confirmed by a letter from W. Windham, dated 5th January,
1778, directed to “Ric. Brinsley Sheridan, Esq.,” at “Queen
Street, Lincoln’s Inn Fields.”[302] It is said that on the day of
Garrick’s funeral (1779), after the ceremony was over, Sheridan
“spent the remainder of the day in silence, with a few select
friends, at his residence in Great Queen Street.”[303]
_Rivers House._
The first occupant of the house immediately to the east of Bristol
House, occupying the site of what were afterwards Nos. 59 and 60,
Great Queen Street, was the Spanish Ambassador, who has been shown
above[304] to have been in residence on 22nd January, 1637–8. A
reference to his occupation of the house occurs in the following:
“May 10, 1638. The Spanish Ambassador, the Conde de Oniate,
accompanied with an Irish gentleman of the order of Calatrava, in
the Holy Week, came to Denmark House to do his devotions in the
Queen’s Chapel there. He went off thence about 10 o’clock, a dozen
torches carried before him by his servants, and some behind him.
He and the Irish gentleman were in the front with their beads in
their hands, which hung at a cross, some English also were among
them; so that with their own company and many who followed after,
they appeared a great troop. They walk from Denmark House down the
Strand in great formality, turn into the Covent Garden, thence to
Seignior Con’s house in Long Acre, so to his own house in Queen’s
Street.”[305] Writing to Sir John Pennington from the Earl of
Northumberland’s residence [_i.e._, probably next door] on 21st
November, 1638, Thomas Smith says: “The Spanish Ambassador was
robbed here last night of all his church plate. The thieves are
not heard of.”[306]
In July, 1641, the Countess Rivers purchased the house, being
already in occupation of the premises.[307] This was Elizabeth,
eldest daughter and co-heir of Thomas Darcy, Baron Darcy of Chich,
afterwards created Viscount Colchester and (on 4th November, 1626)
Earl Rivers. She married, in 1602, Sir Thos. Savage, Bt., of Rock
Savage, Chester, who was created Viscount Savage on the same day
that his father-in-law was raised to the earldom. He died in 1635,
and in April, 1641, about fifteen months after her father’s death,
his widow was created Countess Rivers for life. She died in March,
1651.
[Illustration:
_Elizabeth, Countess Rivers._
]
The Subsidy Roll for 1646 contains among the few items relating to
the south side of Great Queen Street, one, “The Lady Savige her
house,” which undoubtedly refers to the Countess Rivers. That she
was resident at the house that year appears from the fact that in
April, 1646, she petitioned[308] the House of Lords, stating that
her houses in Suffolk and Essex, with all her personal estate, had
been utterly wasted and destroyed, so that if she and her family
were forced to leave their present residence they must be exposed
to a misery not to be expressed. She pointed out that both she and
her servants had taken the negative oath, and therefore she prayed
for a licence for herself and family to remain in her house in
Queen Street.
On the Countess’s death the house presumably came into the
possession of her son, the second Earl Rivers. John Savage, born
before 1610, succeeded his father as Viscount Savage in 1635, and
his maternal grandfather as Earl Rivers in 1640. He died in 1654,
and was succeeded by his son Thomas, third Earl Rivers, born
before 1626.[309] The third Earl’s residence at the house in Great
Queen Street was divided into two periods, the house having
apparently been let for some time _circ._ 1670–80. That the Savage
family were in occupation in 1658 is clear from the terms of a
letter[310] dated 24th September in that year from Sir William
Persall:
“Our Queen Street news is ill; my Lady Rivers[311] is in a very
ill condition of health.” The Hearth Tax Rolls for 1665 and
1666[312] give the name of the Earl in connection with the house,
and to this period is apparently to be assigned the further
letter[313] dated 3rd October, in an unknown year, by Sir William
Persall, in the following terms: “Give me leave to render you the
history of our Queen Street family, and the reason of the bill on
the door which found at my coming up. They had intelligence that
the constables were to come and present the names of all church
absentees popishly affected;[314] so they consulted in my absence
and resolved to set the bill on the door, and give it out my Lady
Rivers was in the country, Sir Francis Petre[315] in common
garden[316] out of the parish, Sir Will. Persall gone to live at
his house in the country, none but servants left; when everyday
half-a-dozen coaches come to visit us, and the baskets of meat as
full as ever, and two or three brewers still carrying in ale and
beer; and all for Tom Browne, who, poor man, is already half
damn’d with telling of lies to all that come to inquire of us, as
well friends as others. But they have given us in, as Tom Brown
reported that we were all gone except my Lady Mary,[317] who is
but fifteen, and so incapable to take the oath, and yet I hear
they have taken our names again.”
In the Hearth Tax Roll for 1673 Col. Thos. Howard is shown as
occupying the house. He was succeeded by “Lord Obryant” (_Hearth
Tax Roll_ for 1675). This is undoubtedly Lord O’Brien, afterwards
the second Earl of Inchiquin.
[Illustration:
_O’Brien._
]
William O’Brien, son of Murrough O’Brien, sixth Baron and first
Earl of Inchiquin, was born about 1638. He was brought up in
London at the house of Sir Philip Perceval, and afterwards saw
much military service with his father in France and Spain. In 1660
they were both captured by an Algerian corsair, and carried into
Algiers, but were subsequently ransomed by the English Government.
His residence in the house in Great Queen Street seems to have
begun about November, 1673. Writing to Williamson on the 28th of
that month,[318] he says: “I rejoice at nothing more in my remove
to Queen Street than to be able to assure you that besides a
hearty welcome, there is a couple of good rooms at your command.”
Again, on 20th February, 1673–4,[319] he writes to Williamson with
reference to the latter’s German voyage, adding that “your poor
friends in Queen Street wish you really as well as any of those
that contrive this voyage for you.” A few weeks afterwards he was
appointed captain general of the forces in Africa and governor and
vice-admiral of Tangier, a position which he held for six years.
He succeeded his father in the title on 9th September, 1674. On
the Revolution he supported William III. and in 1690 was appointed
captain general and governor of Jamaica, where his troubles with
the French and negroes, increased by his want of tact, undoubtedly
shortened his life. He died in January, 1691–2.
The ratebook for 1683 shows the house again in the occupation of
Earl Rivers. He died in 1694 at the house in Great Queen
Street.[320]
The Jury Presentment Roll for 1698 shows “Lady Rivers” at the
house, but whether this refers to the widow of the third Earl[321]
or the second wife of the fourth Earl[322] is not known.
In the ratebook for 1700 no name appears against the house, but in
those for 1703 and 1709 Earl Rivers is shown in occupation.
Richard, the fourth Earl (“Tyburn Dick”) was handsome, brave, and
a most notorious rake. As Lord Colchester (a title he obtained
after his elder brother’s death), he had been the first nobleman
to welcome the Prince of Orange on his landing. During William’s
reign he saw a great deal of military service in Ireland and on
the Continent. Being strongly recommended by Marlborough, he was
in 1706 appointed to the command of a force originally intended
for a descent on France, but afterwards diverted to Portugal.
Rivers was, however, superseded within a few weeks after his
landing and returned home. He owed much to Marlborough’s
influence, but being unable, in 1709, to induce him to support his
candidature for the position of constable of the Tower, he paid
court to the other side, and the grant to him of the appointment
on the recommendation of Harley was the first sign of the coming
fall of the Whigs. High in favour, he was in 1710 sent on a
delicate political mission to Hanover, and in 1711 was created
master of the ordnance. He died in August, 1712, at his house at
Ealing Grove.
In his will[323] he left to Mrs. Elizabeth Colleton _alias_
Johnson,[324] “all my mansion house called Rivers House, scituate
in Great Queen Street,” and in the ratebook for 1715 the occupant
of the house is given as “Mrs. Eliz. Collington,” with a note “an
ambassador’s house and gone away.”
The next occupant of the house was apparently William, sixth Baron
North.[325] He was son of Charles, fifth Baron North, who had on
his marriage with Catherine, only daughter of William, Lord Grey
of Wark, taken the title of Lord Grey. He succeeded to the titles
in 1691. He served with Marlborough throughout the war of the
Spanish Succession, at the end of which he held the rank of
lieutenant-general. During the latter part of Anne’s reign his
Jacobite sympathies became more and more pronounced. On the
accession of the Hanoverian dynasty he therefore became an object
of suspicion, and on 28th September, 1722, was committed to the
Tower for complicity in Atterbury’s plot.[326] He escaped and was
re-arrested, but subsequently was admitted to heavy bail. Shortly
afterwards he left the country and never returned, dying at Madrid
in October, 1734. His residence at Rivers House must have been
short, commencing some time between 1715 and 1720, and terminating
either at or before his committal to the Tower in 1722.
In the will of Richard, fourth Earl Rivers, there is mention of
“Miss Bessy Savage,” to whom the Earl left £10,000 on condition
that she married with the consent of Mrs. Colleton. “Bessy” was
the Earl’s illegitimate daughter by the latter, and in August,
1714, when she was fifteen years old, she married “with consent of
her mother”[327] the third Earl of Rochford. As Rivers House is
found in her possession, she evidently obtained it, either by gift
or bequest, from her mother, to whom Lord Rivers had left it.
[Illustration:
_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.
Whichever of the houses on either side of Conway House formed the
Earl’s residence, he had left it before the end of 1641, for
according to a deed[342] of 20th December in that year, the house
to the east of Conway House was then in the occupation of the
Countess of Essex, while that on the west, with which we are here
concerned, was occupied by the “Lord Awbyney.”
George Stuart, ninth seigneur D’Aubigny, was the fourth son of
Esmé, third Duke of Lennox. He married Catherine Howard, eldest
daughter of the second Earl of Suffolk.[343] On the outbreak of
the Civil War he embraced the royal cause, and was slain at
Edgehill in October, 1642.
The exact period of his residence in the house in Great Queen
Street is uncertain. Assuming that the Earl of Northumberland was
the previous occupant, D’Aubigny must have entered into occupation
some time between May, 1640, and December, 1641. Some ground for
assuming that he had at the latter date quite recently taken up
his residence here may be found in the fact that in a deed dated
31st July, 1641,[344] relating to Rivers House, the premises
mentioned as the eastern boundary are simply referred to as “a new
messuage where the statue of the Queenes Majestie is placed,”
without any occupant’s name being given. This detail is, on the
contrary, given in the case of the western boundary of the
property, and it seems likely that the omission in the former case
is due to the fact that the house was then unoccupied. Too much
weight, however, cannot be assigned to the argument.
The next mention of the house is in October 1645, when it was in
the occupation of Colonel Popham.[345] From the following, dated
24th February, 1653, it would appear that either before 1645, or
between then and 1653, Lord Montagu had acquired an interest in
the house. “Upon hearing of Colonel Alexander Popham, a member of
Parliament, concerning the house which he holds from ye Lord
Mountague scituate.... It is ordered that ye said Colonel Popham
doe pay ⅔ of the rent due for ye said house to ye use of ye
Commonwealth which is sequestered for the recusancy of the said
Lord Mountague.”[346] Afterwards Lord Montagu himself resided at
the house, the Hearth Tax Rolls for 1665, 1666 and 1673 giving his
name in respect of the premises.[347]
Francis Browne, third Viscount Montagu, the only son of Anthony
Maria Montagu, the second Viscount, was born in 1610, and
succeeded to the title in October, 1629. He died in November,
1682.[348] The Hearth Tax Roll for 1675 shows Lady Montagu[349] at
the house.
The next occupant whose name is known was “Lord Dilleage,”[350] of
whom nothing can be found.
In two much later documents[351] it is stated that before the
division of the house into two it formed the residence of the
Marquess of Normanby, and the Jury Presentment Roll for 1698 shows
the Marquess in occupation of the house in that year. This was
John Sheffield, son of Edmund Sheffield, second Earl of Mulgrave.
He was born in 1648, and succeeded to the earldom ten years later.
He saw both naval and military service during the reign of Charles
II., and in 1680 commanded an expedition for the relief of
Tangier. With James II. he was in high favour. At the Revolution
he quietly submitted, but was for several years in opposition to
the court party. In 1693–4 he showed signs of a desire to support
the government, and in May, 1694, was encouraged in his attitude
by being created Marquess of Normanby. Two years later, however,
he resumed his policy of opposition. On the accession of Anne he
was at once taken into favour and appointed Lord Privy Seal. In
March, 1703, he was made Duke of Buckingham and Normanby, and
later on was appointed one of the commissioners to arrange the
treaty of union with Scotland. In 1710 he became Lord President of
the Council. On the arrival of George I. he was removed from all
his offices. He died in February, 1721, at Buckingham House, St.
James’s Park.
[Illustration:
_Sheffield._
]
He was not only a munificent patron of literature, Dryden and Pope
particularly being under obligations to him, but also himself an
author. Chief among his writings were: _Essay on Poetry_, _Essay
on Satire_, _Account of the Revolution_. Mention should also be
made of his extraordinary revision of _Julius Cæsar_, which he
broke up into two plays and rewrote, and into which he introduced
love scenes.
The period of his residence at the house in Great Queen Street
cannot be exactly determined. He was not there in 1683, but a
letter from him (as Lord Mulgrave) to Dykevelt, headed “Queen
Street,” dated, “March 8th,” and assigned to the year 1691,[352]
affords some evidence towards limiting the date of the beginning
of his occupation. His removal from the house seems to lie between
1698 and 1700, the ratebook for the latter year having no entry in
respect of the house.
In 1702 the house was purchased of William Withers by Robert Lane
and Jonathan Blackwell,[353] apparently on behalf of their
brother, Ralph Lane, an eminent Turkey merchant. Lane divided the
house, letting off the portion fronting the street, and reserving
for his own use that in the rear. This he used as his own
house[354] until his death in 1732. By his will,[355] dated 15th
June, 1726, he left his “two messuages or tenements” in Great
Queen Street to his wife Elizabeth for her widowhood, and the
reversion to his brothers in trust for his daughters, the Lady
Parker[356] and Byzantia.[357] A codicil of 6th July, 1728,
however, revoked this and settled the property on his wife
absolutely.
The widow is shown in the ratebooks as occupying the house from
1733 to 1753 inclusive. She died in March, 1754, leaving[358] her
“two freehold messuages scituate in Great Queen Street ... one of
them being in [her] own occupation, and the other adjoyning
thereto, in the occupation of Mr. Hudson,” to her grandson, George
Lane Parker, the younger son of her daughter and the Earl of
Macclesfield.
In 1764 Parker sold[359] both of the houses to Philip Carteret
Webb, who was already in occupation of the house in the rear,
having, in fact, succeeded Mrs. Lane in the year in which she
died.
Philip Carteret Webb was born about 1700. In 1724 he was admitted
attorney-at-law, and soon acquired a great reputation for
knowledge of records and of precedents of constitutional law. He
was employed in connection with the prosecution of the prisoners
taken in the rebellion of 1745, and in that of John Wilkes. For
his share in the latter he incurred great obloquy, culminating in
1764 in a trial for perjury, in which, however, the jury returned
a verdict of “Not guilty.” When in January, 1769, he was charged
in the House of Commons with having used the public money to bribe
witnesses against Wilkes, counsel pleaded on his behalf that he
was now blind and of impaired intellect, and the motion against
him was defeated. He died in the following year, leaving[360] all
his property to his wife Rhoda.
Webb was a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries and of the Royal
Society. He had acquired large collections of MSS., coins and
medals, marble busts and bronzes.