BEDFORD 85 DUKEDOM. IX. EARLDOM XII. 1802. 6 and 10. John (Russell), Duke of Bed- ford, <yc., br. and h., b. 6 July, and bap. 2 Aug. 1766, at St. Giles's-in-the-Fields, Midx. En- sign, 3rd Foot Guards, 1783-85. Recorder of Bedford; M. P. (advanced Whig) for Tavistock, 1788-90, and 1790-1802; took his seat in the House of Lords 9 Dec. 1802; Lord Lieut. OF Ireland, 1806-07; P-C- 12 Feb. 1806; F.S.A. 22 June 1809; LL.D. Cambridge; K.G. 25 Nov. 1830. He ;«., istly, 21 Mar. 1786, at Brussels, and again on 17 Apr. following, at Streatham, Surrey, Georgiana Elizabeth, 2nd da. of George (Byng), 4th Viscount Torrington, by Lucy, only da. of John (Bovle), 5th Earl of Cork. [I.]. She d. at Bath, 11 Oct. 1801, and was bur. at Chenies. He wz., 2ndly, 23 June 1803, (spec, lie.) at Fife House, Whitehall, in St. Martin's-in-the-Fields, Midx., Georgiana, 5th and yst. da. of Alexander (Gordon), 4th Duke of Gordon [S.], by his 1st wife, Jane, da. of Sir William Maxwell, of Monreith, 3rd Bart. [S.]. He d. at the Doune of Rothiemurchus, co. Perth, 20 Oct., and was bur. 1 6 Nov. 1839, at Chenies, aged 73. Will pr. June 1 840 under ^^250,000.^ His widow, who was b. 18 July 1781, at Gordon Castle, and who in 1836 was coh. to her br. George, the 5th Duke of Gordon [S.], d. 24 Feb. 1853, at Nice, and was bur. there, aged 71. Will pr. May 1853. 7 and 1 1. Francis (Russell), Duke of Bed- ford, fife, 1st s. and h. by ist wife. He was b. 13 May 1788, in Pall Mall, and bap. at St. James's, Westm. Ed. at Westm. school, and at Trin. Coll. Cambridge. M.A., 1808. M.P. (Whig) for Peterborough, 1809-12, and for Beds, 1812-32. He was sum. to the House of Lords, v.p., 15 Jan. 1833, in his father's Barony (HOWLAND OF Gotobed, and had a son, who bore that name, whom he is said to have had educated at Oxford, and to whom he presented a large estate at Welney, co. Cambridge. The marriage date 1 750, given above, being some 1 5 years before this Duke was born, is of course wildly wrong, even if there were otherwise any foundation for the tale. In 1784 he appears, "The Bloomsbury Youth and Miss St-v-ns-n " [i.e. Stevenson] in the tete-a-tete portraits in Town and Country Mag., vol. xvi, p. 9. See Appendix B in the last volume. As to his character for stinginess, see p. 83, note "b." Had he lived his extravagance would probably have ruined the family; as it was it compelled the sale of what would now be the enormously valuable Streatham property, as also of the Stratton estate (to the Baring family), which came to the Bedfords through Rachel, wife of William, styled Lord Russell. V.G. (^) " A more uninteresting weak minded selfish character does not exist than the D. of Bedford. He is a good natured plausible man without enemies, and really (though he does not think so) without friends. . . . He is affable, bland, and of easy intercourse, making rather a favourable impression on superficial observers." [GrevilU Memoirs, and part, vol. i, p. 239). He had a very large family, who were devoted to him; he would never economise or reduce his expenditure, leaving that task for his successor. He was the last Duke of Bedford to exercise the peculiar jurisdiction DUKEDOM X. EARLDOM. XIIL 1839.
