1812 he was named a lord of the bedchamber and again held that appointment from January 1820 till November 1829. As Lord Petersham he was one of the best known figures in society during the regency and reign of George IV, and figures frequently in contemporary prints. His habits and tastes were eccentric. He never went out till 6 P.M., and his whole equipage was invariably of a certain brownish hue. He designed the Petersham overcoat and the Petersham snuff-mixture, and mixed his own blacking. In common with his family, he was a great connoisseur in tea, and his room was described by Captain Gronow as like a shop, full of tea-canisters and boxes of snuff labelled in gilt. He had a large and valuable collection of snuff-boxes. His hats were also peculiar (Meltost, Hints on Hats, p. 39). In person he was tall and handsome, and dressed like Henri Quatre, whom he was supposed to resemble. In spite of his affectations he was personally popular. Moore met him at dinner at Horace Twiss's chambers in Chancery Lane in June 1819 (Diary and Corresp. ii. 320).
Petersham was a great patron of the stage, and, after his accession to the peerage as Lord Harrington in 1829, married Maria Foote [q. v.], the actress, who survived him. Their only child, a daughter, married George, second marquis Conyngham. Harrington died on 3 March 1851. He was succeeded in the title by his brother, Leicester Fitzgerald Charles Stanhope.
[Doyle's Official Baronage; Peerages of G. E. C. and Burke ; State of the Expedition from Canada, 1780, 2nd edit. pp. 64-81, and App.; Gent. Mag. 1829, ii. 365-8; Public Characters, 1828, ii. 306; Stanhope's Hist, of England, vi. 260 n., 286, 313. Evans's Cat. Engr. Portraits; Moore's Diary and Corresp. i. 110, 113, 186, ii. 32, iv. 80, viii. 62,63. For the fourth Lord Harrington , see also Captain Gronow's Reminiscences, 1892, i. 284-6, where he figures in several of the coloured plates. In Ashton's Social England under the Regency (vol. ii.) are reproduced a portrait published in January 1812 by H. Humphrey, and a caricature of Petersham in the Cossack trousers in vogue in 1815. A drawing of Petersham as 'a noble aide-de-camp,' given in Timbs's English Eccentrics, probably represents his father.]
STANHOPE, Sir EDWARD (1546?–1608), chancellor of the diocese of London, born at Hull about 1546, was the fourth son of Sir Michael Stanhope [q. v.], by Anne, daughter of Nicholas Rawson of Aveley, Essex. John Stanhope, first baron Stanhope [q. v.], was his elder brother.
An elder brother, also named Edward, represented in parliament Nottinghamshire and Yorkshire successively, was a surveyor of the duchy of Lancaster, treasurer of Gray's Inn, recorder of Doncaster, and a member of the council of the north. He died in 1603, and was buried at Kirby Wharffe. Yorkshire.
Sir Edward the younger was scholar of Trinity College, Cambridge, from 1560 to 1563, minor fellow in 1564, and major fellow in 1569. He graduated B.A. in 1563, M.A. in 1566, and LL.D. in 1575. He was incorporated M.A. at Oxford in September 1566, 'when Queen Elizabeth was entertained by the Oxonian Muses' (Wood, Fasti Oxon. i. 174). On 1 Sept. 1578 he supplicated to be incorporated D.C.L., but, though it was granted simpliciter, 'it appears not that he was incorporated' (ib. p. 211). On 25 Nov. 1572 he was appointed to the prebend of Botevant in York Cathedral. He was admitted as advocate at Doctors' Commons in 1576, and on 7 June 1577 was sworn as a master in chancery. About 1583 he was named vicar-general of the province of Canterbury, and, having meanwhile (Nov. 1584-Sept. 1585 and Oct. 1586-March 1587) served in parliament as member for Marlborough, was appointed a member of the ecclesiastical commission in 1587. Two years later he obtained, through the influence of Lord Burghley, to whose second wife he was related, the place of commissioner of the fines office. In 1589 he was also presented to the rectory of Terrington in Norfolk by his nephew William Cooper. In 1591 he resigned his stall at York on his appointment as canon and chancellor of St. Paul's Cathedral. Stanhope's name appears in the commission of March 1593 'touching Jesuits and other disguised persons,' and also in that of oyer and terminer for London in February 1594. In the same year he was also a member of Whitgift's commission for the survey of ecclesiastical courts in the London diocese; and in April 1601 was a commissioner in the inquiry concerning piracies. Together with his brother Michael he received a grant from the crown in June 1600 of the manor of Hucknall Torkard, Nottinghamshire, and was knighted at Whitehall on 25 July 1603. In that year Stanhope served on the commission under which Raleigh and his associates were tried for high treason, and was appointed one of the four learned civilians who were to examine and adjudicate upon all books printed in the realm without authority.
Stanhope died on 16 March 1607-8, and was buried in St. Paul's Cathedral 'near to the great north door.' His epitaph on the monument on the eastern wall, printed in 'Monumenta Sepulchraria Sancti Pauli,'
