2o8 BOLINGBROKE Bolingbroke,(*) i^c., under the spec. rem. in the creation thereof, I2 Dec. 1 75 1, taking his seat as such 12 Feb. 1754. Lord of the Bedchamber, 1762-65 and 1768-80. In 1763 he sold to Viscount Spencer the estate of Battersea, Surrey, which he had inherited from his great-grandfather. Sir John St. John, Bart., to whom it had been devised in 1630 by his (the Baronet's) uncle Oliver (St. John), ist Viscount Grandison [I.]. He m., 8 Sep. 1 757, at Harbledown, Kent, Diana, da. of Charles (Spencer), Duke OF Marlborough, by Elizabeth, da. of Thomas (Trevor), 2nd Baron Trevor of Bromham. She was Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Charlotte 1762-68. From her he obtained a divorce by Act of Pari. 10 Mar. I768.() He d. 5 May i787.('=) Will pr. June 1787. in. 1787. 3. George Richard (St. John), Viscount Boling- BROK.E, i^c., s. and h., b. 5 Mar. 1761; matric. at Oxford (Ch.Ch.)23junei777. M.P. (Whig) for Cricklade i782-84.('^) Hew., istly, 26 Feb. 1783, Charlotte, da. of the Rev. Thomas Collins, of Winchester, his tutor. From her he was ultimately separated. She d. 11 Jan. 1803, at the Hot Wells, Bristol. He m., 2ndly, 1 Aug. 1804, Isabella Charlotte Antoinette Sophia, Baroness Hompesch.(') He d. 18 Dec. 1824, at Pisa. Will pr. 1 825. His widow d. July 1 848, at Torquay. Will pr. Aug. 1 848. if) "Where a person is tenant in tail male of a dignity, ivith a rem. over in tail male to another, and such person is attainted of high treason, the dignity is forfeited as to him and his issue male; . . . but upon failure [thereof] . . . becomes vested in the remainder man or his male descendant." See C?uise, p. 122. Such was the devolution in 1572 of the Earldom of Northumberland, cr. 1 55 7; as also was the devolution in 1751 of the Viscountcy of Bolingbroke. C') The cause was her crim. con. with Topham Beauclerk (the friend of Dr. Johnson, and s. and h. of Lord Sydney Beauclerk, and grandson of Charles, 1st Duke of St. Albans), whom she m., at St. Geo., Han. Sq., the 1 2th of that same month, and who ^. II Mar. 1 7 80. She d., his widow, I Aug. 1808. She was an accomplished artist, and was often employed by the Wedgwoods. {") Lord Chesterfield, in his JVorks, vol. ii, p. 212, writes of him as "by his talents no way unworthy to bear his uncle's name," and in another place as having " true and solid good sense, real taste and knowing a great deal." For the last six years of his life he was out of his mind. He appears in 1772, "The Battersea Baron and Mrs V t," in the notorious tete-a-tete portraits in The Town and Country Mag., for an account of which see Appendix B in the last vol. of this work. In politics he was originally Whig, but supported the Court in the reign of George III, and pro- tested against the repeal of the Stamp Act. G.E.C. and V.G. (^) He was one of those, for the most part Whigs, who, having supported the Coalition of North and Fox, were turned out of their seats at the Gen. Election of 1784, when Pitt swept the board, and were known as "Fox's Martyrs." For a list of them see vol. iv, Appendix A. As a peer he voted against Pitt's Regency Bill. V.G. (^) He had previously gone through the form of marriage with her in Austria, during the lifetime of his 1st wife. " Lord Bolingbroke lives a mile off with the German lady his wife, now declared so, and married over again to him since the death of Lady B. He has been here 10 years now. She is anything but handsome; a little square German with broken teeth, but they say very amiable." (Aug. Foster, New Jersey, 22 Sep. 1805). V.G.
