Protestant Exiles from France/Book First - Chapter 11 - Section II
II. Earl of Radnor.
William, eldest son of Jacob Des Bouverie (afterwards Sir Jacob Bouverie, third baronet), was born in 1725. Although England has always been proud of her merchant princes, yet no merchant was raised to higher rank than baronetcy till 1747, in which year Sir Jacob was raised to the peerage as Viscount Folkestone. His friend, Mr. Mark Stuart Pleydell, had been created a baronet on 19th June 1732. He had an only child and heiress, Harriot Pleydell. To this young lady the Hon. William Bouverie was married on 14th January 1748, with the prospect of adding to the family possessions her father’s estate of Coleshill in Berkshire. On 4th March 1750 an heir was born and named Jacob; but the young mother died on the 29th May following, and was buried in the family vault at Bridford. Mr. Bouverie erected a monument to her memory in the parish church of Coleshill, with an affectionate epitaph:—
Sacred to the most endeared memory of
THE HON. HARRIOT BOUVERIE,
daughter and only child of Sir Mark Stuart Pleydell, Bart.,
by Mary his wife.
In person, manner, disposition, and uncommon understanding, most amiable.
In gentleness, candour, and humility — in prudence, sincerity, and beneficence —
in substantial and uniform piety —
most exemplary;
the accomplished woman — the universal friend — the real Christian.
As a daughter, she was obedient, she was affectionate;
As a parent (short, alas ! her trial), tender, solicitous.
The ornament of her own family, —
the admiration of that into which she married, —
loving and beloved with entire unvaried affection,
an honour to the marriage state,
she blessed a husband who can never enough lament
the loss of so incomparable a wife.
Gulielmus Bouverie, praehonorabilis viri Vicecomitis Folkestone
Alius natu maximus, infeliciter superstes, cum lacrymis posuit.
Britfordiae comi. Wilton in sepulchro suis sacro
depositi sunt cineres.
Mary, Lady Pleydell, was the daughter of Robert Stuart, and granddaughter of John Stuart, Esq. of Ascog, in Bute. Her first cousin was Mrs. John Alleyne (née Mary Terrill), sister-in-law of Sir John Guy Alleyne, Bart. This Mrs. Alleyne had a daughter, Rebecca, who on 5th September 1751 became the second wife of Hon. William Bouverie, and died as Rebecca, Viscountess Folkestone, on 4th May 1764, her husband having succeeded his father as the second Viscount on 17th February 1761. The noble widower married, thirdly, on 22d July 1765, Anne, daughter of Sir Thomas Hales, Bart., and widow of Anthony Duncombe, Lord Feversham (who had been also Baron of Downton, in Wiltshire). Although the third wife, she was the first Countess, for on the 31st October following, William, Viscount Folkestone, was created Earl of Radnor[1] and Baron Pleydell-Bouverie, of Coleshill.
Sir Mark Pleydell died in 1768, having bequeathed Coleshill to his grandson Jacob, by courtesy Viscount Folkestone, at the same time granting a remainder (to which, however, it has never been necessary to have recourse) in favour of the other Bouverie heirs, on condition that each inheritor of Coleshill should, with his children, adopt the double surname of Pleydell-Bouverie. The first Earl of Radnor died 28th January 1776, in his fifty-first year. His successors in his titles and estates have attained to a greater age. The second Earl of Radnor (the son of Harriot Pleydell), Jacob Pleydell Bouverie, M.A., F.R. and A.S., formerly M.P. for Salisbury, Lord Lieutenant of Wiltshire, died 27th January 1828 in his seventy-eighth year. This nobleman’s praises were sounded by an enthusiast for church decoration, the Rev. Thomas Ford, D.C.L., vicar of Melton-Mowbray. It seems that Rev. John Morres, M.A., had been tutor to Lord Folkestone (afterwards third earl). Lord Radnor in 1798 presented this clergyman to the rectory of Nether Broughton, and signalised the deed by giving “a very superb set of communion plate” to his church. Dr. Ford, on 22d May 1799, wrote to Mr. Nichols, suggesting that an engraving of the vessels should be inserted in the Gentleman’s Magazine, with the following letter:—
“Permit me to offer to public notice a very choice and costly gift, which the piety and liberality of a noble peer has lately dedicated to the church. It is a paten and cup from the Earl of Radnor for the use of the altar at Nether Broughton, Leicestershire — every way corresponding with the character of that nobleman, so justly esteemed for classical erudition, judicious taste, polished manners, unshaken integrity, and inviolate attachment to the principles of orthodox belief. This leads him to a reverence for the service, and whatever contributes to the dignity and ornament of churches under his immediate patronage. There is a chapel in the Cathedral of Salisbury belonging to his lordship by right of ancestry, which I am informed is converted into an Oratory for his own use, and beautified with a profusion of elegance. The annexed plate represents the donation [to Nether Broughton Church]. I was charmed with the design and execution of it, and delighted to find amidst such a decay of piety and decline of affection for the House of God among persons of high rank, that zeal for the worship which is after the
- ↑ The noble family of Robartes had in 1679 acquired the title of Earl of Radnor, which expired with the fourth Earl in 1764.