DUNHAM, SAMUEL ASTLEY, LL.D. (d. 1858), historian, was author of works published in Lardner's ‘Cabinet Cyclopædia.’ All were distinguished by original research and conscientious thoroughness. He wrote: 1. ‘The History of Poland,’ 1831. 2. ‘History of Spain and Portugal,’ 5 vols., 1832–3. This is still accounted the best work on the subject in any language. It obtained for him the distinction of being made a member of the Royal Spanish Academy; and it was translated into Spanish by Alcala Galiano in 1844. 3. ‘A History of Europe during the Middle Ages,’ 4 vols., 1833–4. 4. ‘Lives of the Most Eminent Literary and Scientific Men of Great Britain,’ 3 vols., 1836–7. These volumes include dramatists and early writers, and were not wholly written by Dunham. 5. ‘History of Denmark, Sweden, and Norway,’ 3 vols., 1839–40. 6. ‘History of the Germanic Empire,’ 3 vols., 1844–5. After this time he was largely occupied with the reviewing of books, and, in his latest years, with biblical work, much of which has never seen the light. He is stated to have had a long and intimate acquaintance with Spain, presumably prior to the writing of his history. He was intimate with Southey, who spoke of his knowledge of the middle ages as marvellous, and he was in close correspondence with Lingard, the historian, who was godfather to one of his sons. His death took place suddenly by paralysis on 17 July 1858. One of his sons is a missionary priest, at present (1888) labouring in the Australian bush.
[Athenæum, 24 July 1858, p. 111; Adams's Manual of Historical Literature, 1882; Brit. Mus. Cat.; communications from Mr. Samuel Dunham.]
DUNK, GEORGE MONTAGU, second Earl of Halifax (1716–1771), son of George Montagu, second baron, who was created Earl of Halifax in 1715, and married as his second wife Lady Mary Lumley, daughter of Richard, earl of Scarborough, was born 5 Oct. 1716, and succeeded on his father's death in 1739 to the earldom and to the position of ranger of Bushey Park. The family estates were but small, and throughout his life he was ‘by no means an economist,’ but at the commencement of his career he was ‘so lucky as to find a great fortune in Kent.’ The heiress was Anne, the only daughter of William Richards, who had inherited in 1718 the property of Sir Thomas Dunk, knight, the representative of a family of ‘great clothiers’ seated at Tongs in Hawkhurst, Kent. She brought her husband the enormous fortune in those days of 110,000l., and the marriage was celebrated on 2 July 1741, having been delayed for some time because the lady had inherited this money on condition of marrying some one engaged in commercial life. This obligation Halifax is said to have fulfilled by becoming a member of one of the trading companies in London, and he also assumed her name. Richard Cumberland, who as the peer's private secretary had good opportunities for studying their domestic life, bears high witness to her character, and to his ‘perfect and sincere regard,’ which was shown in his grief at her premature decease in 1753, when she was but twenty-eight years old. Halifax was educated at Eton and at Trinity College, Cambridge, and as a scholar ranked much above his contemporaries in position. When he took his seat in the House of Lords he joined the opposition as a follower of the Prince of Wales, and received in October 1742 the post of lord of the bedchamber in the prince's household; but at the close of 1744 he made his peace with the Pelham ministry, and was rewarded with the position of master of the buckhounds. On the invasion of England in 1745, Halifax, like other noblemen, volunteered to raise a regiment, and his speech at Northampton on 25 Sept. 1745 to rally the gentry of that county to the royal banner is printed in the ‘Gentleman's Magazine’ for 1745, pp. 501–13. Though these promised regiments ‘all vanished in air or dwindled to jobs,’ he was created a colonel in the army 4 Oct. 1745, and though never engaged in active service ultimately rose to the position of lieutenant-general (4 Feb. 1759). The mastership of the buckhounds he retained until June 1746, and from that month until 7 Oct. 1748 he held the chief-justiceship in eyre of the royal forests and parks south of the Trent. In the autumn of that year Halifax was placed at the head of the board of trade, with John Pownall as its acting secretary, and his own chief adviser. By some critics the new president was deemed overbearing in manners and moderate in talents, but his zeal in pushing the mercantile interests of his country and his application in raising the credit of his department were universally recognised. The commerce of America was so much extended under his direction that he was sometimes styled the ‘Father of the Colonies,’ and the town of Halifax in Nova Scotia was called after him in 1749, in commemoration of his energy in aiding the foundation of the colony. In June 1751 he tried, says Horace Walpole, to get the West Indies entirely placed under the rule of the board of trade, and to secure his own nomination as ‘third secretary of state for that quarter of the world,’ but the king refused his consent to the scheme. Walpole states that at
