(1721 - 75), e. s. of John, Ld. Hervey of Ickworth Suff.; army officer 1739 - 42; suc. fa. 1743 as 2nd B. Hervey; suc. gd.-fa. 1751 as 2nd E. of Bristol; env. extra. Turin 1755 - 8, amb. Madrid 1758 - 61; ld. privy seal 1768 - 70; unm.
1741 Rome (Mar. - Apr.), Florence ( - 25 Apr. 1741), Bologna (by 29 Apr.), Reggio, Venice (May) [England 17 Jun. 1741]
1755 - 8 Turin (15 Jun. 1755 - Aug. 1758), Genoa ( - 20 Aug.)
On his first visit to Italy in 1741, Lord Hervey was guided round Rome at the end of March by Mark Parker ('lent' by Lady Pomfret), and on 1 April he spent the evening in company which included Lady Pomfret, Lord Lincoln, Samuel Dashwood and George Pitt.1 In Florence he fell in with Horace Walpole, and late in April they travelled together2 through Bologna to Reggio.3 Horace Mann remembered that Lord Elcho had been a great favourite of 'little Lord Hervey when he was in Venice'.4 Hervey was ordered home by the end of May upon being made Captain in the 34th regiment of foot, and he arrived in England on 17 June.5
As Lord Bristol he was appointed envoy extraordinary at Turin, where he arrived on 15 June 1755.6 He was a very worthy nobleman, wrote William Cole, 'well versed in English History, antiquities, and heraldry', but he suffered from a 'most delicate and tender constitution, which made him desirous of going into warmer climates'.7 He left Turin on 14 or 15 August 1758,6 and sailed from Genoa with his brother Augustus on 20 August.8
1. Pomfret Corr., 3:22, 38. Spence Letters, 369. 2. SP 98/44 (Florence Newsletter, 30 Apr. 1741). 3. Wal.Corr., 30:16 (29 Apr. 1741). 4. Ibid., 19:148 (10 Nov. 1745). 5. Ibid., 17:34n17. 6. Horn, 1:125. 7. Childe-Pemberton, 1:50. 8. Hervey (Aug.) Jnl., 289 - 90.