Stanhope, Hon. Sir William
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- Stanhope, Hon. Sir William
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(1702 - 72) of Eythrope, Bucks, 2nd s. of 3rd E. of Chesterfield; KB 1725; MP 1727 - 41, 1747 - 68; m. 1 1721 Susanna Rudge (d. 1740), 2 1745 Elizabeth Crowley (d. 1746), 3 1759 Anne Delaval.
1753 - 6 Florence (autumn 1753), Rome (by 3 Nov.), Capua (7 Nov.), Naples (Nov. 1753 - Jan. 1754), Rome (Mar./Apr.), Capua (12 Apr.), Naples (Apr. - Jun. 1754 - ); Padua (21 Apr. 1755) [Russia, Poland, Germany] Rome (Dec. 1755 - Apr. 1756), Naples (by 27 Apr. - Jun.), Florence (Jul.)
1761 - 2 Florence (Oct. 1761), Rome (Nov. 1761 - 5 Jan. 1762), Naples (Jan. 1762 - summer 1763) [London 5 Aug.]
1765 - 6 Naples (by 7 Apr. 1765 - May 1766) [England Jul.]
The rich younger brother of the 4th Earl of Chesterfield (author of the Letters), he was over fifty and somewhat deaf when he paid the first of three visits to Italy. Yet four years before this visit his London house had put Horace Walpole more in mind of Florence 'than anything we have seen here'.1
On his first visit he passed through Florence2 before arriving in Rome early in November 1753; he went straight on to Naples, passing through Capua on 7 November with a Mr Creichton.3 In January 1754 he was presented at Court in Naples,4 and he accompanied the British envoy Sir James Gray on a second presentation.5 In March he made an excursion to Rome for Holy Week; Cardinal Albani, who presented him to the Pope, noticed the Abb? Grant 'already at his side'.6 On 12 April Stanhope was passing through Capua on his way back to Naples, again with a Mr Creichton.7 'Instead of going to Venice for the Ascension, as he had promised his nephew [Sir Charles Hotham], he returned to Naples, where I hear he has taken a house for a year', wrote Horace Mann; 'he has quite recovered his hearing and is vastly happy'.2
It is unclear how long Stanhope stayed in Naples, but he was in Padua on 21 April 1755,8 and when he next appeared in Rome in December 1755 he had just returned 'from the North',9 a lengthy tour of the European courts, wrote Robert Adam, 'Russia, Poland, Prussia and with His Majesty at Hanover'.(10) Adam thought him 'extremely clever, knows the world as well as anybody', and he listened to Stanhope's advice on how to advance his architectural career.(11) During his stay in Rome Stanhope bought two landscapes from Thomas Patch to 'to assist him [Patch] in his journey' (his banishment) to Florence.9 He 'offered large sums for pictures in the galleries of Rome - to a thousand crowns a piece',12 and gave the painter John Parker (who called Stanhope the 'only one of taste' then in Rome), several 'large commissions for pictures and statues'13 - which were later withdrawn as Stanhope learned of Parker's eccentric behaviour.14 Stanhope left Rome in April for Naples,15 where he stayed with John, Lord Brudenell, and Henry Lyte at the residence of consul Isaac Jamineau.16 In July 1756 Stanhope was about to leave Florence (bringing back to England the maintenance agreement between Lady Orford and her estranged husband).17
Five years later, with his 'very agreeable young wife' he was in Florence, 'eager to get to Naples'. 'He is in hopes', Mann wrote in November 1761, 'that the warmth of that climate may enable him to repair the loss of my Lady's miscarriage some time ago'.18 Stanhope was fifty-nine, his third wife, Anne Delaval, was twenty-four. From the beginning of November they were in Rome, where Stanhope kept a gaming table at which 'all the gaming English' would gather, including James Adam - whom Stanhope obligingly introduced to Lord Tavistock and the Duchess of Grafton.19 Stanhope is known to have stayed in the Via Babuino at Signor Leoncilli's on one of his visits to Rome (see above, p.xlv). They left for Naples on 5 January 1762, having been closely attended by the Abb? Grant,20 who was to visit them in Naples in February, 'if there is no rupture between England and Naples'.21 It was said that Grant 'got into a scrape with Sir Wm Stanhope who he accompanied to Naples, and was said to have been useful in conveying Letters from an Absent Lover &c.' (see above, p.xlv). They sailed from Naples in the summer of 1763 for Marseilles,22 but when they returned to London on 5 August 1763, they agreed to separate forthwith.23
With 'a crazy, battered constitution, and deaf into the bargain',24 Stanhope had returned to Naples on his own by April 1765. He was very friendly with John Wilkes, who told Boswell in June that he was frequently seeing his 'old friend' Stanhope.25 Stanhope was on his way home in May 1766, Mann then writing that he was 'most extremely dissatisfied with Naples, which lost all merit with him by not restoring his vigour enough to get an heir to his family [on his previous visit]'.26 He was back in England 'from Naples' in July 1766.27 In November 1767 he was wintering in Nice.28
1. Wal.Corr., 19:485. 2. HMC Var.Colls., 6:26. 3. SP 105/310, f.171 (Albani, 3 Nov. 1753). ASN cra 1257. 4. SP 105/310, f.3 (Gray, 3 Jan. 1753 os). 5. SP 93/13 (Gray, 1 Jan. 1754). 6. SP 105/310, f.251 (Albani, 2 Mar. 1754). 7. ASN cra 1257. 8. Brown 2029. 9. HMC Charlemont, 1:222. 10. Fleming, Adam, 196. 11. Ibid., 194 - 9. 12. HMC Charlemont, 1:226 J. (Parker, 28 Feb. 1756). 13. Ibid., 228 (22 May 1756). 14. Ibid., 252 (20 Feb. 1759). 15. SP 93/14 (Gray, 20 Apr. 1756). 16. Lyte letters MSS (27 Apr. 1756). 17. Wal.Corr., 20:569.
18. Ibid., 21:550. 19. Fleming, Adam, 295. 20. Seafield MSS, gd 248/99/3 (Abb? Grant, 20 Jan. 1762). 21. Ibid., gd 248/3/608 (6 Feb. 1762). 22. SP 93/20 (Changuion, 5 Jul. 1763). 23. Wal.Corr., 22:164n37. 24. Chesterfield, Letters, 6:2544. 25. Wal.Corr., 22:292. Boswell, Italy, 101. 26. Wal.Corr., 22:418. 27. Sterne Letters, 395n1. 28. Chesterfield, Letters, 6:2827.