(1718 - 39), 3rd surv. s. of 2nd D. of Grafton; unm.; d. Milan.
1738 - 9 Genoa, Florence (6 Nov. 1738 - ), Rome (by 8 Jan. 1739), Florence ( - 20 Feb.), Genoa [Lisbon] Leghorn (27 Jun.), Genoa (Aug.), Milan (d. 11 Aug.)
Lord Charles Fitzroy made the grand tour with Thomas Seward as his tutor. He arrived in Florence on 6 November 1738 from Genoa,1 and in January 1739 he was in Rome.2 In Florence Fitzroy called on Stosch, from whom he bought an intaglio (a Meleager), the poet Tommaso Crudeli accompanying him as he was afraid of being cheated.3 On 20 February 1739, with the 4th Earl of Sandwich and his older brother Augustus, he left Florence for Genoa where they were to embark for Lisbon.4 They returned to Leghorn on 27 June.5 He was afterwards in Genoa, and on 11 August he died in Milan,6 his fatal illness caused, said Sacheverell Stevens, by travelling over the mountains early one morning after having overheated himself dancing all night at an assembly in Florence.7 Horace Walpole later recalled that Seward, believing that Fitzroy was recovering under the attention of Sir John Shadwell, 'whipped up to his chamber and began a complimentary Ode to his physician' but kept it after his pupil's death, 'being too much pleased with it to throw it away'.8
1. SP 98/40 (Newsletter Florence, 10 Nov. 1738). 2. Macnaghten, 2. 3. Lepper 1950, 41. 4. SP 98/42 (Newsletter Florence, 23 Feb. 1739). 5. Ibid. (Newsletter Leghorn, 3 Jul. 1739). 6. SP 98/42, f.195 (Mann, 17 Aug. 1739). 7. S. Stevens, Seven Years Tour, [1756], 129 - 30. 8. Wal.Corr., 33:423.