(1711 - 73), o. s. of William Pierrepont, sty. E. of Kingston; sty. E. of Kingston 1713 - 15, M. of Dorchester 1715 - 26 when suc. gd.-fa. as 2nd D. of Kingston; educ. Eton; Dilettanti 1738; KG 1741; army officer, col. 1745, maj.-gen. 1753, gen. 1772; m. 1769 Elizabeth Chudleigh.
1730 - 2 Venice (Dec. 1730) [Lyons May - Sep. 1731, Geneva] Turin (22 Oct. 1731), Milan (one week), Genoa, Florence (1 - 15 Dec. 1731), Rome, Venice (Feb. 1732), Padua (3 Mar.)
'A very weak man, of the greatest beauty' (according to Horace Walpole), he travelled in Italy with a tutor, Nathan Hickman (and a W. Cotton). He was in Venice with the Duke of Norfolk in December 1730, expected 'shortly' in Rome.1 He spent most of 1731 in Lyons 'with a large retinue', and recrossed the Alps, with Joseph Spence and Lord Middlesex (later 2nd Duke of Dorset), in October; he then spent a week in Milan before going on to Genoa.2 He was in Florence for two weeks until 15 December, when he left for Rome.3 He had then been expected in Venice, Elizeus Burges writing that the Duke 'proposes to stay but 6 months in Italy; so he runs through as many places as he can before he comes hither'.4 But the Duke came back from Rome in time to see 'ye last three daies' of the Carnival in Venice, before setting out through Padua5 for Paris. 'He seems very little taken with any thing he has seen in Italy', Burges commented,6 although both the Duke and Dr Hickman were later said to have shown interest in engravings in Florence.7
1. SP 98/32, f.130 (Walton, 14 Dec. 1730). 2. Spence Letters, 53, 65, 72, 84, 419. 3. SP 98/32, ff.307, 312 (Walton, 1, 15 Dec. 1731). 4. SP 99/63, f.187 (7 Dec. 1731). 5. Brown 1913. 6. SP 99/63, f.191 (29 Feb. 1732). 7. Borroni 1974a, 1520.