Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Hare, Henry (1693-1749)
HARE, HENRY, third Lord Coleraine (1693–1749), antiquary, born at East Betchworth, Surrey, 10 May 1693, was the eldest son of the Hon. Hugh Hare (1668-1707) [q. v.], by his wife Lydia, daughter of Matthew Carlton of Edmonton, Middlesex. He was educated at Enfield under Dr. Uvedale. Upon the death of his grandfather, Henry, second lord Coleraine [q. v.], in 1708, he succeeded to the title, and was admitted a gentleman-commoner of Corpus Christi College, Oxford, under the tuition of Dr. John Rogers, who married in 1716 his sister Lydia. He became a good classic, and was well versed in both civil and ecclesiastical history. A copy of Latin alcaics from his pen was printed in the 'Academiæ Oxoniensis Comitia Philologica in honorem Annæ Pacificæ,' 1713, and in the 'Musæ Anglicanæ,' iii. 303, under the title of 'Musarum Oblatio.' Basil Kennett, who in 1714 succeeded Thomas Turner in the presidency of Corpus, inscribed to Coleraine an epistolary poem on his predecessor's death.
Coleraine visited Italy three times; the second time, about 1723, in company with Conyers Middleton, when he made a collection of prints and drawings of the antiquities, buildings, and pictures in Italy, given after his death to Corpus Christi College. He was a member of the Republica Letteraria di Arcadia, and a friend of the Marquis Scipio Maffei, who renewed the intimacy at Coleraine's country seat, Bruce Castle, Tottenham. He was elected F.S.A. 8 Dec. 1725, and frequently acted as vice-president. On 18 May 1727 he became a member of the Gentleman's Society at Spalding, Lincolnshire, and was also a member of the Brasenose Society. In the following year he was grand master of freemasons. He was chosen F.R.S. 8 Jan. 1729–30, and during the same month was elected M.P. for Boston, Lincolnshire, in the place of Henry Pacey, deceased, but retired at the general election of 1734 (Smith, Parliaments of England, i. 196). He died in August 1749, and was buried at Tottenham. He married, 20 Jan 1717-18, Anne, eldest daughter of John Hanger, sometime governor of the Bank of England, who brought him a dowry of nearly 100,000l. The pair lived together until October 1720, when Lady Coleraine left her husband for ever. Coleraine, finding a reconciliation impossible, formed on 29 April 1740 'solemn engagement' with Rose Duplessis (1710–1790), daughter of François Duplessis, a French clergyman, by whom he had a daughter, Henrietta Rosa Peregrina, born at Crema in Italy 12 Sept. 1745. Having had no issue by his wife, Coleraine bequeathed his Tottenham estates to this illegitimate daughter; but she being an alien they escheated to the crown. A grant of them was afterwards obtained for James Townsend (d. 1787), alderman, of London, to whom she was married on 2 May 1763 (Lysons, Environs, iii. 527).
Coleraine bequeathed with certain reservations his drawings and prints of antiquities and buildings in Great Britain to the Society of Antiquaries, but the codicil being declared void, and the society not caring to commence a chancery suit for their recovery, Rose Duplessis, at the persuasion of Coleraine's friend Henry Baker (1698–1774) [q. v.], presented them to the society, and afterwards a portrait of Coleraine when young by Richardson, with other minor bequests. His library was purchased in 1754 by Thomas Osborne, the bookseller, who appropriated many private papers and deeds lodged in presses behind the bookcases. Among them was the second Lord Coleraine's manuscript history of Tottenham, 'curiously written and neatly bound,' with the family arms on the cover. The pictures and antiques were sold by auction on 13 and 14 March 1754 for 904l. 13s. 6d. The coins, it is supposed, were disposed of privately. Coleraine was a great patron of George Vertue, took him on various antiquarian tours in England for the purpose of making drawings, and left him 20l. for mourning. Lady Coleraine survived until 10 Jan. 1754 (Gent. Mag. 1754, p. 47), and desired to be buried at Bray in Berkshire (will registered in P. C. C. 6, Pinfold). Gabriel, third son of her uncle Sir George Hanger, was, in 1762, created Baron Coleraine.
[Lodge's Peerage of Ireland, ed. Archdall, vii. 79; William Robinson's Hist. of Tottenham, 1840, vol. i. Appendix No. ii.; Nichols's Lit. Anecd.; Nichols's Illustr. of Lit.; Thomson's Hist, of Royal Society, Appendix, iv. xxxviii; [Gough's] Chronolog. List of Soc. Antiq. p. *4; Chester's London Marriage Licenses (Foster), col. 625; Gent. Mag. 1749, p. 380; Walpole's Royal and Noble Authors (Park), v. 257-9; Chalmers's Biog. Dict. under 'Hare;' Oldfield and Dyson's Tottenham.]