Beaufort, Henry Somerset, 3rd Duke of
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- Beaufort, Henry Somerset, 3rd Duke of
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(1707 - 45), s. of 2nd D. of Beaufort; educ. Westminster and Univ.Coll. Oxf. 1720; suc. fa. 1714 as 3rd D.; m. 1729 Hon. Frances Scudamore, dau. of 2nd Vct. Scudamore [I]; div. 1744.
1726 - 7 [France Aug. 1725 - Mar. 1726] Turin (by 13 Apr. 1726), Milan (19 Apr.), Modena, Bologna, Florence (27 Apr. - 2 May), Leghorn (3 - 4 May), Siena, Rome (6 May - 28 Sep.), Naples (30 Sep. - 19 Oct.), Rome (Oct. - 13 Dec.), Spoleto, Foligno, Loreto, Ancona, Rimini, Ravenna, Ferrara, Venice (27 Dec. 1726 - 5 Mar. 1727), Padua (28 Mar.), Vicenza, Verona, Milan, Turin [Paris 26 May]
The young Duke, a Jacobite, had succeeded to his estates at the age of seven. At the age of nineteen he travelled for his general education, accompanied by his steward, Dominique du Four. There was also a governor, William Philips, an elderly and apparently devious Jacobite, nevertheless recommended by the Pretender himself as one whose 'greater experience of the world may enable him to moderate sometimes in you a zeal which cannot be too much commended, but which it may be sometimes more advisable to conceal.'1 Beaufort's Italian journey was to prove more remarkable for the collections he then made, and specifically for his commission from the Grand Duke's workshops of the extraordinary 'Badminton Cabinet'.
He had spent eight months in France before reaching Turin by 13 April 1726.2 He briefly visited Milan, Modena and Bologna before spending four days in Florence, where the consul Colman described him as being accompanied by Wogan, 'a young Gentleman of Ireland', and Philips, 'an Irish gentleman of about sixty years of age' and a Catholic who 'had served formerly [with] the Irish troops of France'.3 On 4 May the Duke left Leghorn for Rome, consul Skinner saying he had come from Lucca and Florence with Philips and Wogan (who 'had previously been in Italy with 'a son of My Lord Falklands').4 Beaufort arrived in Rome on 6 May and spent seven months there, interrupted only by a three-week visit to Naples in October.
His Jacobite sympathies were hardly disguised in Rome, and James Edgar, the Pretender's secretary, later recalled that 'the Duke of [Beaufort] was the man of all Great Britain who had most often ascended the staircase to the Pretender's rooms'.5 It was generally understood that the Duke, with 'son humeur douce, docile', was being manipulated by Philips, 'un homme aussi fier, et imperieux & aussi g?t? dans ses Principes', and Beaufort confessed that he did not know how to rid himself of his governor.6 They stayed in the Casa Guarnieri and were constantly observed by Stosch.7 On 9 June Beaufort gave a lavish entertainment to mark the anniversary of the Stuart Restoration, and on 27 July he held a great reception to mark the birthday of the Princess Clementina, the Pretender's wife. Stosch even found himself threatened by Philips in the Vatican where the Duke's party were inspecting Raphael tapestries. By 10 August Stosch noted the Duke was spending a lot of money on pictures. In this he was advised not only by Philips, but by the Scottish painter Patrick Cockburn, the Roman antiquary Ficoroni and his landlord, Giovanni Francesco Guarnieri.
When consul Edward Allen reported the Duke's presence in Naples on 4 October he mentioned the party included Philips, 'Nicholas Wogan, a Lieutenant in General Dillon's Regiment in the French service, and one Mr Cockburne, a Scotch Painter [Patrick Cockburn], whom the Duke has employed to buy pictures, & they say has laid out to the value of Six Thousand Pound Sterling therein at Rome'.8 Reporting Beaufort's departure back to Rome on 19 October, Allen said he had allowed Beaufort credit of 'one Thousand Pound Sterling, whereof two thousand five hundred Crowns were remitted by me to Mr Thomas Tyrrell[,] Chamberlayn to the Great Duke of Tuscany for the purchase of a fine Cabinett, which the Duke saw, when he passed through Florence & was afterwards agreed for at said price by Mr Tyrrell'.9 This is the first mention of the Badminton Cabinet.
On 23 November Stosch again mentioned Beaufort's collecting activities in Rome; he had acquired a 'large quantity of statues, Busts, and pictures' which had been sent to Leghorn for shipment. On 14 December Stosch grudgingly reported that Beaufort 'is said to have spent over 30,000 scudi on pictures and marbles, which, with the exception of eight or ten pieces, the majority are of little importance. He has bought Raphael's original drawing in large [cartoon?] for the Transfiguration in S.Pietro Martiro [now Vatican], of the size of the original with the exception of the figures at the top which are missing'.(10) But the Duke appears to have bought with some discrimination.(11) He obtained access to the collections of the Cardinals Albani and Alberoni, perhaps through his great-uncle the Duke of Ormonde. Alberoni presented him with an urn (untraced) and a celebrated antique sarcophagus (now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art). From Albani he bought paintings attributed to Claude, Leonardo da Vinci and Palma Vecchio, and he bought others from Priore Vaini and Antonio Borrioni. He acquired paintings by Guercino and Raphael, a Fortuna and Nursing of Jupiter by Salvator Rosa (sold 1957), and he commissioned paintings from Pietro Berton ('8 pictures especially painted for His Excellency'). Beaufort and Philips each acquired from 'Mr Wolfgang' a miniature portrait set in a ring of the Princess Clementina.(12) In addition Beaufort left with Guarnieri a commission for a cube room at Badminton to be lined with Italian marbles; it was never installed, though some of the marble appears to have been incorporated in the chapel at Badminton when it was rebuilt in 1783.(13) Eventually ninety-six cases of works of art were shipped from Leghorn in 1728.
Beaufort left Rome on 13 December. A week later Tyrrell in Florence had received his commission for 'a very fine inlaid Cabinet'.14 This was one of the greatest works of decorative art ever commissioned by a British patron; 'the famous rich cabinet' which Tyrrell finally sent to England in 1732 was 'a very curious piece of workmanship. It was made in the Great Duke's Gallery & has cost his Grace I believe full two thousand pounds', as Skinner reported.15 It was sold from Badminton in 1990.
On leaving Rome Beaufort passed rapidly through Spoleto, Ancona and Ravenna to Venice, where he arrived on 27 December. He spent three months there, in the course of which he and his governor were observed by Willem Bentinck and his governor Moses Bernege. Beaufort left for England through the cities of the Veneto in March and April. On 27 March he was in Padua with Philips, Wogan and Cockburn.16
Throughout their tour Philips had borrowed money from the Duke to build up his own collection of works of art but, on their return to London, he was accused of selling a number of the Duke's purchases in Cock's sale rooms (on 24 - 5 January 1728). Patrick Cockburn told the Duke that some of the pictures sold bore Philips's seal, and that Philips was 'a gentleman of Honour'.(11)
1. J.H. Glover, Stuart Papers, 270 (25 Dec. 1725). 2. Notes by Lucy Abel Smith (see n13) from steward's accts., Badminton MSS fml 4/2 and 3. 3. SP 98/25 (4 May 1726). 4. SP 98/34 (4 May 1726). 5. Elcho, Short Account, 23 (Beaufort wrongly given as Bedford). 6. Bernege letters MSS, f.477; 29 May 1727. 7. SP 85/16 (Walton, 8, 25 May; 1, 13, 15, 22 Jun.; 13, 20 Jul.; 10, 17 Aug.; 28 Sep. 1726). 8. SP 93/5 (4 Oct. 1726). 9. Ibid. (31 Oct. 1726). 10. SP 85/16 (Walton, 23 Nov.; 14 Dec. 1726). 11. See O. Sitwell, Burl.Mag., 80[1942]:85 - 90, 115 - 18. 12. SP 85/16 (Walton, 28 Jun. 1727). 13. See L. Abel Smith, Burl.Mag., 138[1996]:25 - 30. 14. SP 98/25 (Colman, 20 Dec. 1726). 15. SP 98/34 (Skinner, 25 Oct. 1732). 16. Brown 1837 - 40.