BUCKINGHAM 399 and, finally, one of the Lords Justices of the Realm, i Aug. to i8 Sep. 1 714, at the accession of the House of Han over. (•') He ;;;., istly, i8 Mar. 1685/6, at Littlecote Chapel, Ramsbury, Wilts, Ursula, widow of Edward (Conway), Earl of Conway, ist da. and coh. of George Stawell, of Cothelstone, Somerset (br. of Ralph, ist Baron Stawell), by Ursula, da. of Sir Robert Austen, Bart, of Bexley, Kent. She, by whom he had no issue, d. 13 Aug. 1697. Admon. lo Sep. 1697. He w., 2ndly, 12 Mar. 1698/9, at St. Clement Danes, Katherine, widow of Wriothesley (Noel), Earl of Gainsborough, da. of Fulke (Greville), 5th Baron Brooke, by Sarah, da. of Francis Dashwood. She, by whom he had no issue, d. 7, and was bur. 11 Feb. 1703/4, in Westm. Abbey. He ;«., 3rdly, 16 Mar. 1705/6, at St. Martin's-in-the-Fields (lie. Fac. Off. 15 Mar.), Katherine,() widow of James (Annesley), Earl of Anglesey, formerly the Lady Katherine Darnley, spinster, being illegit. da. of James II, by Katherine (Sedley), suojure Countess of Dorchester. He d. at Buckingham House,() St. James's Park, Westm., 24 Feb., and was bur. 25 Mar. 1 720/1, in his 73rdyear (attended by no less than ten Officers of Arms), in Westm. Abbey. ('^) (*) For a list of these see note sub William, Duke of Devonshire [1707]. C") Walpole asserts that with a view to curbing her pride in her royal descent, her mother, Lady Dorchester, informed her that she was in fact the daughter of Col. Graham, and he adds that the likeness between her and the Countess of Berk- shire, Graham's legitimate daughter, was remarkable. V.G. (■=) Built for him in 1703, facing the Mall, and sold by his descendant, Sir Charles Sheffield, for ^^21,000 to George III, in 1761, and called "The Queen's House." Buckingham Palace was built on its site in 1825. C*) He was a writer of indifferent verse. Of the various estimates of his character, one of the most favourable is that of Prince Eugene, who writes, 4 Apr. 1712: "A sanguine man, but of great parts, esteemed a true patriot, and one of the eldest sons of the Church, a great assertor of the ancient constitution, reputed a great lover of the family of the Stuarts, having the favour of the Queen's ear very much." Samuel Johnson was less complimentary: "His religion he may be supposed to have learned of Hobbes, and his morality was such as naturally proceeds from loose opinions. His sentiments with respect to women he picked up in the Court of Charles, and his principles concerning propertv were such as a gaming table supplies. He was censured as covetous, and has been defended by an instance of inattention to his affairs, as if a man might not at once be corrupted by avarice and idleness If we credit the testimony of his contemporaries, he was a poet of no vulgar rank: but favour and flattery are now at an end; criticism is no longer softened by his bounties nor awed by his splendour, and .... discovers him to be a writer that sometimes glimmers but rarely shines; feebly laborious and at best but pretty .... to be great he hardly tries, to be gay is hardly in his power." Horace Walpole says of him "that he wrote in hopes of being confounded with his predecessor in the title; but he would more easily have been mistaken with the other Buckingham, if he had never written at all." Bishop Burnet's character of him, with Dean Swift's comments thereon in italics, is, that he "Is a nobleman of learning, and good natural parts, but of no principle; violent for the High Church, yet seldom goes to it; very proud, insolent, and covetous, and takes all advantages. This character is the truest of any." A very amusing account is given by Thomas, Earl of Ailesbury, in his Memoirs, of the efforts
