Son of Judge John Hervey (1696 - 1764) of Reigate; Camb., BA 1755; changed name to Des Bouverie on inheriting estate from his mo.
1755 - 8 Rome ( - Mar. 1755 - Jan. 1756 - ), Venice (spring 1758)
1775 - 7 Naples
Christopher Hervey 'will not charm at first sight, but I never saw a man of better understanding, with the strictest notions of Honor and Morality, and, in my opinion, a peculiar sweetness of temper', wrote Lady Mary Wortley Montagu.1 Robert Adam had met Hervey in Rome in March 1755, describing him as a friend of Adam Ferguson with whom he had been in Leipzig, and 'a very good natured sensible young fellow'. Though he had no taste for drawing, he went with Adam to Tivoli, protesting 'that he would not be troublesome to us and that whilst I drew he would sit by me and read [Fielding's Tom Jones]'. Adam called on him again in Rome in January 1756,2 and he was conceivably the 'Monsu Hervey' living in Rome, 'seguita Ripetta verso il Porto' that year.3 Lady Mary Wortley Montagu had apparently met him in Venice in the spring of 1758, but, she wrote, 'our acquaintance was short, he being summon'd to England on the death of his Younger Brother'.1
In 1775 Sir William Hamilton proposed 'Mr Christopher Hervey, a Gentleman of landed estate in Kent which I believe he inherited on the death of Mr Bouverie', as charg? d'affaires during his absence on leave: 'he has lived several years abroad and is master of the French and Italian languages, but what is more essential, his conduct during a years residence in this City, has been such as to have already gained him an universal esteem'.4 'Harvey' was listed as charg? d'affaires from June 1776 to November 1777.5
1. Montagu Letters, 3:154 - 5. 2. Fleming, Adam, 204, 226, 359. 3. AVR sa, S.Lorenzo in Lucina. 4. SP 93/30 (Hamilton, 7 Nov. 1775). 5. Horn, 1:77.
