Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Musgrave, Christopher
MUSGRAVE, Sir CHRISTOPHER (1632?–1704), statesman, third son of Sir Philip Musgrave [q. v.], bart., of Edenhall, and of Musgrave and Hartley Castle, Westmoreland, was born at Edenhall in 1631 or 1632. He matriculated from Queen's College, Oxford, on 10 July 1651, and graduated B.A. the same day. In 1654 he entered as a student of Gray's Inn. He suffered imprisonment in the Tower and other places for his adherence to the royal cause, and was concerned in the unsuccessful rising of Sir George Booth at Chester in 1659. After the Restoration he was given a commission as captain of a foot company in Carlisle garrison, and in 1663 made clerk of the robes to Queen Catherine. This post he nearly lost by non-attendance and through failure to have his accounts properly audited, but pleaded that he had been detained in the north by the disturbed state of the country due to Atkinson's rising. His company at Carlisle was disbanded in 1668, and in 1669 he was made a captain in the king's guards. In 1671 he was knighted, in 1672 served as mayor of Carlisle, and in 1677 became governor of Carlisle Castle on the death of his father. In 1681 he was nominated lieutenant-general of the ordnance, and in 1687 he succeeded as fourth baronet to the family honours on the death of his elder brother, Sir Richard.
Musgrave sat in parliament for forty-three years, from 1661 to his death, being M.P, for Carlisle 1661-90, Westmoreland 1690-5, Appleby 1695-8, Oxford University 1698-1700, Westmoreland 1700-1, Totnes 1701-2, Westmoreland 1702-4. He was a staunch supporter of the crown, and in the 'List of Court Pensioners in Parliament,' published in 1677 (said to be by Andrew Marvell), he appears as receiving 200l. a year. He strongly opposed the Exclusion Bill, and appears to have assisted in 1684 in the surrender of the charters of Carlisle and Appleby to the king (Lowther, Memoirs of the Reign of James II). But in 1687 he lost his post as lieutenant-general of the ordnance for refusing to support James II in repealing the test and penal laws. In the Convention parliament he was one of the few who opposed the resolution declaring the throne vacant, and became the leader of the high tories and the country gentlemen. In this position he carried on a fierce warfare with Sir John Lowther [q. v.], M.P. for Westmoreland, who had been made first lord of the treasury and leader of the House of Commons. Sir Christopher carried a proposal that the revenue of the king should be settled for only four years against Lowther, who wished it to be settled for life. In the parliament of 1692-3 Musgrave supported the Triennial Bill, thus joining the whigs out of office, but still opposing Lowther, who objected to the bill. After 1695 Musgrave played a less prominent part in parliament. But in 1696 he refused to sign the association formed by the commons for the defence of the king after the discovery of Barclay's assassination plot. In 1696 he also supported the resolution for the removal of Somers. When that motion was lost he argued for the resolution prohibiting foreigners from sitting in the privy council. In 1698, when a new grant had to be made to the king, Lowther proposed one million pounds, and Musgrave rose in indignation and proposed 700,000l., which was granted. This, says Onslow, was a prearrangement between the king and Musgrave, and had it not been for the tatter's intervention the king would have only obtained 500,000l. Musgrave received a large sum of money for his action, but as he was coming away from the king's closet one of the bags of guineas burst and revealed what he had been there for. It is to this that Pope alludes in the lines:
Once, we confess, beneath the patriot's cloak,
From the cracked bag the dropping guinea spoke,
And jingling down the backstairs, told the crew,
'Old Cato is as great a rogue as you.'
(Epistle III. to Lord Bathurst, 11. 35-9 ; Elwin, Pope, iii. 131.) Burnet states that Musgrave had 12,000l. from the king at different times for yielding points of importance.
Under Anne he obtained some favour at court, becoming upon her accession one of the tellers of the exchequer. He died of apoplexy in London on 29 July 1704, and was buried in the church of St. Trinity in the Minories, London,
He married for the first time, on 31 May 1660, Mary, daughter and coheiress of Sir Andrew Cogan of Greenwich, bart., by whom he had two sons and a daughter. She died at Carlisle Castle on 11 July 1664. In 1671 he married his second wife, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir John Franklin of Willesden, by whom he had six sons and six daughters. She died on 11 April 1701.
His elder son by his first wife, Philip (1661-1689), was M.P. for Appleby 1685-7 and 1689, and clerk of the council and of the deliveries in the ordnance under James II. He was succeeded as clerk of the council by his younger brother, Christopher (d. 1718). He married in 1685 Mary, daughter of George Legge, lord Dartmouth, and left a son Christopher (d. 1735), who succeeded his grand-father as fifth baronet, and was M.P. for Carlisle and clerk of the council from 1710.
Of Musgrave's sons by his second wife, Joseph (1676-1757) was elected bencher of Gray's Inn in 1724, and was M.P. for Cockermouth in 1713, while George (1683-1751), a graduate of Christ Church, Oxford, was storekeeper of Chatham dockyard and was great-grandfather of George Musgrave Musgrave, who is noticed separately below.
[Foster's Alumni Oxon. (1500–1714); Boyer's Annals of Queen Anne; Betham's Baronetage; Luttrell's Brief Hist. Relation; Foster's Gray's Inn Reg.; Burnet's History of his own Time; Cobbett's Parl. Hist.; Lowther's Memoirs of the Reign of James II; Ferguson's Cumberland and Westmoreland M.P.s; Burton's Life of Sir Philip Musgrave; Le Neve's Mon. Angl.; Cal. State Papers, Charles II; History of Carlisle; Burn and Nicolson's Hist. of Cumberland.]