INTRODUCTION William Cavendish 4th Duke of Devonshire entered this world with the certainty, subject to his living to come of age, of every appurten- ance of greatness. Exalted station and great wealth apart, his family was a principal buttress of the Whig establishment of the early Georges because they had helped place 'the present family', the House of Hanover, upon the throne of Great Britain. Fortunately, the chronicle of this Devonshire is not merely that of a great nobleman, moving with an unconscious ease between his country mansions, and thence to his town house, from where he might intrigue about the Court or sit idly in the House of Lords. A natural balance of judgement, prudence, patriotism, and above all a sense of service without self- seeking, were by common acclaim his characteristics. These qualities led Devonshire to appear briefly as Prime Minister from November 1756 until July 1757, to which he in no way aspired but undertook in the course of a crisis in time of war. Devonshire was born c. 1720: it is remarkable that the year of his birth should be uncertain. His father, at that time Marquis of Hart- ington, was destined to succeed as 3rd Duke on June 4 1729. His mother was not of a great house. She was Catherine, daughter and heir ofjohn Hoskins of Oxted, Surrey, steward to the Duke of Bedford. Hartington's mother, wife of the 2nd Duke of Devonshire, was Rachel, daughter of the Lord Russell who was beheaded in 1683, and grand- daughter of the 1st Duke of Bedford. Evidently Hartington, on some visit to his mother's family, fell in love with Catherine Hoskins and made up his mind to marry her. The match must have occasioned surprise though there is no evidence of family opposition. Like many a noble family down the ages, the Cavendishes owed their emergence from yeoman obscurity to the powerful ambition of a clever lawyer. Sir John Cavendish was Chief Justice of the King's Bench in 1366, 1373 and 1377 during the final years of Edward III. The proceeds of his career were devoted to the purchase of land at Cavendish Overhall in Suffolk, the small wool town from which no doubt the family derived their surname. He became associated with the enforcement of the Statute of Labourers in East Anglia. In the course of the Peasants' Revolt Cavendish, together with the Prior of Bury St. Edmunds, was beheaded by the mob. Thereafter the family lived quietly on their Suffolk estates for over a century. Under the very different conditions of the early Tudors the brothers George and William Cavendish found opportunity for advancement. George was a chief secretary to Wolsey and because of the influence Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.35.93, on 29 Sep 2021 at 16:10:21, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0068690500003822 2 WILLIAM CAVENDISH, 4TH DUKE OF DEVONSHIRE of his Life of the Cardinal, definitively published in 1814, became a founder of modern biography. The brother William, born c. 1505, was far more business man than scholar. A career on the administrative side of the court of Henry VIII led him to the Treasurership of the Chamber. He was a principal assistant to Thomas Cromwell in the destruction of the monasteries, and received a handsome share of the spoils in the south-eastern counties. Cavendish's near and more distin- guished contemporary John Russell 1st Earl of Bedford, in the course of activities more martial than courtly, also accumulated vast estates from the monastic dissolutions. William Cavendish continued as Treasurer of the Chamber to Edward VI. In 1549, having no children by his first two marriages, Cavendish espoused a great heiress much younger than he, Elizabeth, daughter of John Hardwick, of Hardwick co. Derby. Already she had been satisfactorily widowed by the wealthy Derbyshire squire Robert Barlow, of Barlow. She persuaded Cavendish to concentrate his interests in Derbyshire, and also in Nottinghamshire where he acquired Welbeck Abbey. With the accession of Mary I Cavendish conformed to the Roman Communion and remained Treasurer of the Chamber, though like others of similar recantation he retained his former church lands. By the time of his death in 1557 Cavendish had begun the Elizabethan version of Chatsworth. This his widow completed, built a new house at Hardwick, and at Oldcotes, besides several other houses. A third marriage to Sir William St. Loe yielded 'Bess of Hardwick' still greater riches by widowhood. Her fourth espousal, to the 6th Earl of Shrewsbury in 1568, introduced the Cavendish family into the ancient aristocracy. Queen Elizabeth I gave her approval to the extraordinary arrangement, by which, on the day of her contract with Shrewsbury, her son Henry Cavendish married Shrewbury's daughter Lady Grace Talbot, whilst her third daughter Mary married Shrewsbury's heir, later the 7th Earl. Henry did not live to found a family but Mary's daughter in time would marry the Earl of Arundel and become ancestress to the present line of the Dukes of Norfolk. 'Bess of Hardwick's' eldest daugh- ter Frances married Sir Henry Pierrepont and was ancestress to the Earls and Dukes of Kingston, whilst her next sister Elizabeth married the 5th Earl of Lennox, younger brother to the foolish Lord Darnley, and was mother to the unhappy Arabella Stuart. Shrewsbury was for a time custodian of Mary Queen of Scots, who spent some years at Chatsworth. His relations with his wife ran into the disagreements of the utmost rancour accompanied by financial disputes. At her death on February 13 1607 'Bess of Hardwick', who had no children by her other husbands, bequeathed all her property to her two surviving sons, William and Charles. Through them she Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.35.93, on 29 Sep 2021 at 16:10:21, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0068690500003822 INTRODUCTION 3 became the direct ancestress of two ducal houses, of Newcastle and Devonshire. William Cavendish inherited Chatsworth and Hardwick. He was created Baron Cavendish of Hardwick in 1605, Earl of Devonshire in 1618. The family neither then nor subsequently has owned one acre of land in Devon: the county designation was of no importance and the title the consideration. Devonshire's son and successor the 2nd Earl was notable merely for his extravagant way of life. His son the 3rd Earl of Devonshire (1617-84), a zealous supporter of Charles I, was forced into exile and on his return in 1646 compounded for his estates. At the Restoration he was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Derbyshire and spent the remainder of his life in favour at Court. His real importance lay in his patronage of Thomas Hobbes. The line of the younger of 'Bess of HardwickV sons, Charles Cav- endish, was for a time the more important. He inherited Welbeck and married the heiress of the Barons Ogle of Bothal Castle, Northumber- land. Their son William (1592-1676), a great magnifico in everyway, one of the most generous and gallant supporters of Charles I in the Civil War, was created successively Earl, Marquis, and after the Restoration, Duke of Newcastle. His son the 2nd Duke of Newcastle died in i6gi without a male heir. Through a series of female descents the estates passed to Thomas Pelham-Holles, the great eighteenth- century Duke of Newcastle, and William Henry Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland. It was William the 4th Earl of Devonshire who founded the political greatness of his branch of the Cavendish family. Unlike his predeces- sors, he was no courtier and as M.P. for Derby strongly advocated the exclusion of the Roman Catholic Duke of York from the throne. Shortly after his accession James II had him fined £30,000, with his ruin the object. Devonshire from his exile at Chatsworth watched the King make one mistake after another, and in 1688 was one of the Seven who signed the invitation to William of Orange to come and take the Crown. He was therefore rewarded with the Lord Lieuten- ancy of Derbyshire. In 1694 he was promoted as Duke of Devonshire and Marquis of Hartington in the creation which included the duke- dom of Bedford. He was associated with the Act of Settlement of 1701, which entailed the throne upon the House of Hanover. He employed Talman to build a new house at Chatsworth, the home known to his great-grandson the 4th Duke. The 2nd Duke of Devonshire, who succeeded in 1707, continued his father's espousal of Whig causes. With the Tory victory at the general election of 171 o he was dismissed from the Lord Steward- ship of the Household and the Lord Lieutenancy of Derbyshire. The peaceful succession of George I saw him restored to both offices. Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. IP address: 170.106.35.93, on 29 Sep 2021 at 16:10:21, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use, available at https://www.cambridge.org/core/terms. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0068690500003822 4 WILLIAM CAVENDISH, 4TH DUKE OF DEVONSHIRE Subsequently he became the Lord President of the Council in the administration of Sir Robert Walpole. The Cavendish family was established with the new dynasty and from 1714 until 1764 the Lord Lieutenancy of Derbyshire was held by the Dukes of Devonshire without a break. His son the 3rd Duke was regarded by Walpole as one of his most loyal adherents, and here was an administration Devonshire could never have been tempted to abandon.