Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Paget, Henry (d.1743)
PAGET, HENRY, first Earl of Uxbridge (d. 1743), was son of William, sixth lord Paget [q. v.], by Frances, daughter of the Hon. Francis Pierrepont. He was elected M.P. for Staffordshire in 1695, 1698, 1701, 1702, 1705, 1708, and 1710–11. In April 1704, when Prince George of Denmark was constituted lord high admiral, he was appointed one of his council. From 10 Aug. 1710 to 30 May 1711 he was a lord of the treasury, from 13 June 1711 until September 1715 was captain of the yeomen of the guard, and on 14 June 1711 was sworn of the privy council. On 31 Dec. 1711 he was created Baron Burton of Burton, Staffordshire, and succeeded as seventh Baron Paget of Beaudesert on 25 Feb. 1713. He acted as lord lieutenant of Staffordshire from March 1713 until 30 Sept. 1715. On 13 April 1714 he was appointed envoy extraordinary to Hanover, was created Earl of Uxbridge on 19 Oct., and made a privy councillor on 16 Nov. He was also recorder of Lichfield. In September 1715 he resigned his employments. He died on 30 Aug. 1743. Uxbridge married, first, Mary (d. February 1735–6), eldest daughter and coheiress of Thomas Catesby of Whiston, Yorkshire, who brought him a son; and, secondly, on 7 June 1739, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir William Bagot of Blithefield, Staffordshire, by whom he had no issue.
In the British Museum are letters from Uxbridge to John Ellis, 1698 (Addit. MS. 28882, f. 159); Secretary Vernon, 1700 (Addit. MS. 28885, f. 324); Lord-treasurer Harley, 1714 (Addit. MS. 8880, f. 161); and Lord Strafford, 1719 (Addit. MS. 31141, f. 246; cf. Tanner MS. cccv. art. 31, in the Bodleian Library).
His only son, Thomas Catesby Paget, Lord Paget (d. 1742), was one of the gentlemen of the bedchamber to the Prince of Wales, and on the latter's accession to the throne as George II was, on 4 July 1727, continued in the same post. He was elected M.P. for Staffordshire on 3 Feb. 1714–15 and on 22 March 1721–2. He died at Drayton, near Uxbridge, Middlesex, in January 1741–1742. By his marriage at Gray's Inn Chapel, on 3 May 1718, to Elizabeth, second daughter of John, third earl of Bridgwater (Foster, Reg. Gray's Inn, p. lxxvi), he had two sons, Henry and George (1721–1737). During the interval of bad weather in hunting seasons, Paget composed for his own amusement sundry pieces in verse and prose. Such were: 1. ‘An Essay on Human Life,’ 4to, London (1734); a close imitation of Pope. Two third editions in 1736, 8vo and 12mo, profess to be ‘corrected and much enlarg'd by the author,’ who is described in one of them to be the author of the then anonymous ‘Essay on Man’ (cf. Pope, Works, ed. Elwin and Courthope, ii. 262). Under this pretext, Paget's ‘Essay on Human Life’ was printed in a supplement to the ‘Works’ of Pope in 1757. 2. ‘An Epistle to Mr. Pope, in Anti-heroics,’ 4to, London, 1737. 3. ‘Some Reflections upon the Administration of Government’ (anon.), 8vo, London, 1740. His writings were collected in a volume entitled ‘Miscellanies in Prose and Verse,’ 8vo, London, 1741, now very scarce (Walpole, Royal and Noble Authors, ed. Park, iv. 177–80). Paget's letters to his mother and father are in Addit. MS. 8880, f. 151.
His son, Henry Paget (1719–1769), who succeeded his grandfather in 1743 as second Earl of Uxbridge, was chiefly remarkable for an inordinate love of money. Peter Walter, the notorious usurer, who had been his steward, bequeathed to him in 1746 the principal part of his immense wealth (Lipscomb, Buckinghamshire, ii. 596). Uxbridge is said, however, to have continued to Walter's daughter, Mrs. Bullock, during her life the payment of a very large annuity, instead of availing himself to the full of the letter of her father's will (Monthly Mag. xii. 37). He died unmarried on 16 Nov. 1769, and the earldom became extinct.
But the barony-in-fee of Paget devolved on Henry, son of Sir Nicholas Bayly, by Caroline, great-granddaughter of William, fifth baron Paget [q. v.] Henry Bayly assumed the surname of Paget; was summoned to parliament in 1770 as ninth Baron Paget; was created Earl of Uxbridge in 1784; and by his wife Jane, eldest daughter of Arthur Champagné, dean of Clonmacnoise, was father of Henry William, first marquis of Anglesey [q. v.], Arthur [q. v.], Edward [q. v.], and Charles [q. v.]
[Collins's Peerage, ed. 1812, iii. 207, v. 191–2; Doyle's Official Baronage, iii. 548.]