John Hervey, Lord Hervey
Encyclopedia
John Hervey, 2nd Baron Hervey (October 13, 1696 – August 5, 1743), English
courtier and political writer and memoirist, was the eldest son of John Hervey, 1st Earl of Bristol
, by his second wife, Elizabeth. He was known as Lord Hervey from 1723, upon the death of his elder half-brother, Carr, the only son of his father's first wife, Isabella. But Lord Hervey never became Earl of Bristol
, as he predeceased his father.
and at Clare College, Cambridge
, where he took his M.A. degree in 1715. His father then sent him to Paris
in 1716, and thence to Hanover
to pay court to George I
.
He was a frequent visitor at the court of the prince and princess of Wales at Richmond
, and in 1720 he married Mary Lepell, daughter of Nicholas Lepell, who was one of the princess's ladies-in-waiting, and a great court beauty. In 1723 John's elder half-brother Carr died, whereby he became heir apparent to the Earldom of Bristol with the courtesy title of Lord Hervey. In 1725 he was elected M.P. for Bury St Edmunds.
Hervey had been at one time on very friendly terms with Frederick, Prince of Wales
, but in about 1723 they quarrelled, apparently because they were rivals for the affection of Anne Vane. These differences probably account for the scathing picture he draws of the prince's callous conduct. Hervey had been hesitating between William Pulteney
(afterwards earl of Bath) and Robert Walpole
, but in 1730 he definitely took sides with Walpole, of whom he was thenceforward a faithful adherent. He was assumed by Pulteney to be the author of Sedition and Defamation display'd, with a Dedication to the patrons of The Craftsman (1731). Pulteney, who, up to this time, had been a firm friend of Hervey, replied with A Proper Reply to a late Scurrilous Libel, and the quarrel resulted in a duel
from which Hervey narrowly escaped with his life.
Hervey is said to have denied the authorship of both the pamphlet and its dedication, but a note on the manuscript at Ickworth
, apparently in his own hand, states that he wrote the latter. He was able to render valuable service to Walpole from his influence with the queen. Through him the minister governed Queen Caroline
and indirectly George II. Hervey was vice-chamberlain in the royal household and a member of the privy council. In 1733 he was called to the House of Lords by writ of acceleration
in his father's barony. He was then elected a governor of the Foundling Hospital
prior to its foundation in 1739. In spite of repeated requests he received no further preferment until after 1740, when he became Lord Privy Seal
.
After the fall of Sir Robert Walpole he was dismissed (July 1742) from his office. An excellent political pamphlet, Miscellaneous Thoughts on the present Posture of Foreign and Domestic Affairs, shows that he still retained his mental vigour, but he was liable to epilepsy, and his weak appearance and rigid diet were a constant source of ridicule to his enemies. He predeceased his father, but three of his sons became successively Earls of Bristol.
. In 1848 they were published under the editorship of JW Croker
, but the manuscript had been subjected to a certain amount of mutilation before it came into his hands. Croker also softened in some cases the plainspokenness of the original. Hervey's bitter account of court life and intrigues resembles in many points the memoirs of Horace Walpole, and the two books corroborate one another in many statements that might otherwise have been received with suspicion.
Until the publication of the Memoirs Hervey was chiefly known as the object of savage satire on the part of Alexander Pope
, in whose works he figured as Lord Fanny, Sporus, Adonis
and Narcissus
. The quarrel is generally put down to Pope's jealousy of Hervey's friendship with Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
. In the first of the Imitations of Horace
, addressed to William Fortescue, Lord Fanny and Sappho were generally identified with Hervey and Lady Mary, although Pope denied the personal intention. Hervey had already been attacked in the Dunciad and the Peribathous, and he now retaliated. There is no doubt that he had a share in the Verses to the Imitator of Horace (1732) and it is possible that he was the sole author. In the Letter from a nobleman at Hampton Court to a Doctor of Divinity (1733), he scoffed at Pope's deformity and humble birth.
Pope's reply was a Letter to a Noble Lord, dated November 1733, and the portrait of Sporus in the Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot
(1743), which forms the prologue to the satires. Many of the insinuations and insults contained in it are borrowed from Pulteney's libel.
Some literary critics, such as Martin C. Battestin, suggest that Pope's friend and fellow-satirist, Henry Fielding
intended the character of Beau Didapper in Joseph Andrews
to be read as Hervey. Beau Didapper is described as obedient to the commands of a "Great Man" (presumably Walpole) "which he implicitly submitted to, at the Expence of his Conscience, his Honour, and of his Country." Didapper is also compared to Hylas
, and is mistaken for a woman in the dark on account of his soft skin.
The malicious caricature of Sporus does Hervey great injustice, and he is not much better treated by Horace Walpole, who in reporting his death in a letter (August 14, 1743) to Horace Mann, said he had outlived his last inch of character. Nevertheless his writings prove him to have been a man of real ability, condemned by Walpole's tactics and distrust of able men to spend his life in court intrigue, the weapons of which, it must be owned, he used with the utmost adroitness. His wife Lady Hervey (1700–1768), of whom an account is to be found in Lady Louisa Stuart
's Anecdotes, was a warm partisan of the Stuarts
. She retained her wit and charm throughout her life, and has the distinction of being the recipient of English verses by Voltaire
.
and Princess Caroline. But there can also be no doubt that he found men attractive. He lived with Stephen Fox
often during the decade after he followed him to Italy in 1728. He wrote passionate love letters to Francesco Algarotti
, whom he first met in 1736. He may have had a sexual affair with Prince Frederick before their friendship dissolved. He was in fact denounced as a sexually ambiguous figure in his time most notably by William Pulteney, then leader of the Opposition and as cited above, by Alexander Pope in his "Sporus" portrait: "Let Sporus tremble/ What that thing of silk...His wit all seesaw between that and this/Now high, now low, now master up, now miss/ And he himself one vile antitheseis...". The affair with Count Algarotti is certain not conjecture. He was also attracted to Henry Fox
before his affair with Stephen Fox.
(1848); and an article by G. F. Russell Barker in the Dictionary of National Biography
(vol. xxvi., 1891). Besides the Memoirs he wrote numerous political pamphlets, and some occasional verses.
. He is shown acting as a patron to the younger Henry Fox
.
England
England is a country that is part of the United Kingdom. It shares land borders with Scotland to the north and Wales to the west; the Irish Sea is to the north west, the Celtic Sea to the south west, with the North Sea to the east and the English Channel to the south separating it from continental...
courtier and political writer and memoirist, was the eldest son of John Hervey, 1st Earl of Bristol
John Hervey, 1st Earl of Bristol
John Hervey, 1st Earl of Bristol was an English politician.John Hervey was born in Bury St Edmunds, the son of Sir Thomas Hervey. He was educated in Bury and at Clare College, Cambridge...
, by his second wife, Elizabeth. He was known as Lord Hervey from 1723, upon the death of his elder half-brother, Carr, the only son of his father's first wife, Isabella. But Lord Hervey never became Earl of Bristol
Earl of Bristol
Earl of Bristol is a title that has been created twice in British history. The first creation came in the Peerage of England in 1622 in favour of the politician and diplomat John Digby who served for many years as Ambassador to Spain, and had already been created Baron Digby of Sherborne, in the...
, as he predeceased his father.
Life
Hervey was educated at Westminster SchoolWestminster School
The Royal College of St. Peter in Westminster, almost always known as Westminster School, is one of Britain's leading independent schools, with the highest Oxford and Cambridge acceptance rate of any secondary school or college in Britain...
and at Clare College, Cambridge
Clare College, Cambridge
Clare College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge in Cambridge, England.The college was founded in 1326, making it the second-oldest surviving college of the University after Peterhouse. Clare is famous for its chapel choir and for its gardens on "the Backs"...
, where he took his M.A. degree in 1715. His father then sent him to Paris
Paris
Paris is the capital and largest city in France, situated on the river Seine, in northern France, at the heart of the Île-de-France region...
in 1716, and thence to Hanover
Hanover
Hanover or Hannover, on the river Leine, is the capital of the federal state of Lower Saxony , Germany and was once by personal union the family seat of the Hanoverian Kings of Great Britain, under their title as the dukes of Brunswick-Lüneburg...
to pay court to George I
George I of Great Britain
George I was King of Great Britain and Ireland from 1 August 1714 until his death, and ruler of the Duchy and Electorate of Brunswick-Lüneburg in the Holy Roman Empire from 1698....
.
He was a frequent visitor at the court of the prince and princess of Wales at Richmond
Richmond, North Yorkshire
Richmond is a market town and civil parish on the River Swale in North Yorkshire, England and is the administrative centre of the district of Richmondshire. It is situated on the edge of the Yorkshire Dales National Park, and serves as the Park's main tourist centre...
, and in 1720 he married Mary Lepell, daughter of Nicholas Lepell, who was one of the princess's ladies-in-waiting, and a great court beauty. In 1723 John's elder half-brother Carr died, whereby he became heir apparent to the Earldom of Bristol with the courtesy title of Lord Hervey. In 1725 he was elected M.P. for Bury St Edmunds.
Hervey had been at one time on very friendly terms with Frederick, Prince of Wales
Frederick, Prince of Wales
Frederick, Prince of Wales was a member of the House of Hanover and therefore of the Hanoverian and later British Royal Family, the eldest son of George II and father of George III, as well as the great-grandfather of Queen Victoria...
, but in about 1723 they quarrelled, apparently because they were rivals for the affection of Anne Vane. These differences probably account for the scathing picture he draws of the prince's callous conduct. Hervey had been hesitating between William Pulteney
William Pulteney, 1st Earl of Bath
William Pulteney, 1st Earl of Bath, PC was an English politician, a Whig, created the first Earl of Bath in 1742 by King George II; he is sometimes stated to have been Prime Minister, for the shortest term ever , though most modern sources reckon that he cannot be considered to have held the...
(afterwards earl of Bath) and Robert Walpole
Robert Walpole
Robert Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford, KG, KB, PC , known before 1742 as Sir Robert Walpole, was a British statesman who is generally regarded as having been the first Prime Minister of Great Britain....
, but in 1730 he definitely took sides with Walpole, of whom he was thenceforward a faithful adherent. He was assumed by Pulteney to be the author of Sedition and Defamation display'd, with a Dedication to the patrons of The Craftsman (1731). Pulteney, who, up to this time, had been a firm friend of Hervey, replied with A Proper Reply to a late Scurrilous Libel, and the quarrel resulted in a duel
Duel
A duel is an arranged engagement in combat between two individuals, with matched weapons in accordance with agreed-upon rules.Duels in this form were chiefly practised in Early Modern Europe, with precedents in the medieval code of chivalry, and continued into the modern period especially among...
from which Hervey narrowly escaped with his life.
Hervey is said to have denied the authorship of both the pamphlet and its dedication, but a note on the manuscript at Ickworth
Ickworth
Ickworth is a small village and civil parish in the St Edmundsbury district of Suffolk in eastern England. Located on the A143 around a mile and a half south-west of Bury St Edmunds, in 2005 its population was 30....
, apparently in his own hand, states that he wrote the latter. He was able to render valuable service to Walpole from his influence with the queen. Through him the minister governed Queen Caroline
Caroline of Ansbach
Caroline of Brandenburg-Ansbach was the queen consort of King George II of Great Britain.Her father, John Frederick, Margrave of Brandenburg-Ansbach, was the ruler of a small German state...
and indirectly George II. Hervey was vice-chamberlain in the royal household and a member of the privy council. In 1733 he was called to the House of Lords by writ of acceleration
Writ of acceleration
A writ in acceleration, commonly called a writ of acceleration, was a type of writ of summons to the British House of Lords that enabled the eldest son and heir apparent of a peer with multiple peerage titles to attend the British House of Lords or Irish House of Lords, using one of his father's...
in his father's barony. He was then elected a governor of the Foundling Hospital
Foundling Hospital
The Foundling Hospital in London, England was founded in 1741 by the philanthropic sea captain Thomas Coram. It was a children's home established for the "education and maintenance of exposed and deserted young children." The word "hospital" was used in a more general sense than it is today, simply...
prior to its foundation in 1739. In spite of repeated requests he received no further preferment until after 1740, when he became Lord Privy Seal
Lord Privy Seal
The Lord Privy Seal is the fifth of the Great Officers of State in the United Kingdom, ranking beneath the Lord President of the Council and above the Lord Great Chamberlain. The office is one of the traditional sinecure offices of state...
.
After the fall of Sir Robert Walpole he was dismissed (July 1742) from his office. An excellent political pamphlet, Miscellaneous Thoughts on the present Posture of Foreign and Domestic Affairs, shows that he still retained his mental vigour, but he was liable to epilepsy, and his weak appearance and rigid diet were a constant source of ridicule to his enemies. He predeceased his father, but three of his sons became successively Earls of Bristol.
Memoirs and literary quarrels
Hervey wrote detailed and brutally frank memoirs of the court of George II from 1727 to 1737. He gave a most unflattering account of the king, and of Frederick, Prince of Wales, and their family squabbles. For the queen and her daughter, Princess Caroline, he had a genuine respect and attachment, and the princess's affection for him was commonly said to be the reason for the close retirement in which she lived after his death. The manuscript of Hervey's memoirs was preserved by the family, but his son, Augustus John, 3rd earl of Bristol, left strict injunctions that they should not be published until after the death of George IIIGeorge III of the United Kingdom
George III was King of Great Britain and King of Ireland from 25 October 1760 until the union of these two countries on 1 January 1801, after which he was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland until his death...
. In 1848 they were published under the editorship of JW Croker
John Wilson Croker
John Wilson Croker was an Irish statesman and author.He was born at Galway, the only son of John Croker, the surveyor-general of customs and excise in Ireland. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, where he graduated in 1800...
, but the manuscript had been subjected to a certain amount of mutilation before it came into his hands. Croker also softened in some cases the plainspokenness of the original. Hervey's bitter account of court life and intrigues resembles in many points the memoirs of Horace Walpole, and the two books corroborate one another in many statements that might otherwise have been received with suspicion.
Until the publication of the Memoirs Hervey was chiefly known as the object of savage satire on the part of Alexander Pope
Alexander Pope
Alexander Pope was an 18th-century English poet, best known for his satirical verse and for his translation of Homer. He is the third-most frequently quoted writer in The Oxford Dictionary of Quotations, after Shakespeare and Tennyson...
, in whose works he figured as Lord Fanny, Sporus, Adonis
Adonis
Adonis , in Greek mythology, the god of beauty and desire, is a figure with Northwest Semitic antecedents, where he is a central figure in various mystery religions. The Greek , Adōnis is a variation of the Semitic word Adonai, "lord", which is also one of the names used to refer to God in the Old...
and Narcissus
Narcissus (mythology)
Narcissus or Narkissos , possibly derived from ναρκη meaning "sleep, numbness," in Greek mythology was a hunter from the territory of Thespiae in Boeotia who was renowned for his beauty. He was exceptionally proud, in that he disdained those who loved him...
. The quarrel is generally put down to Pope's jealousy of Hervey's friendship with Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
Lady Mary Wortley Montagu
The Lady Mary Wortley Montagu was an English aristocrat and writer. Montagu is today chiefly remembered for her letters, particularly her letters from Turkey, as wife to the British ambassador, which have been described by Billie Melman as “the very first example of a secular work by a woman about...
. In the first of the Imitations of Horace
Horace
Quintus Horatius Flaccus , known in the English-speaking world as Horace, was the leading Roman lyric poet during the time of Augustus.-Life:...
, addressed to William Fortescue, Lord Fanny and Sappho were generally identified with Hervey and Lady Mary, although Pope denied the personal intention. Hervey had already been attacked in the Dunciad and the Peribathous, and he now retaliated. There is no doubt that he had a share in the Verses to the Imitator of Horace (1732) and it is possible that he was the sole author. In the Letter from a nobleman at Hampton Court to a Doctor of Divinity (1733), he scoffed at Pope's deformity and humble birth.
Pope's reply was a Letter to a Noble Lord, dated November 1733, and the portrait of Sporus in the Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot
Epistle to Dr Arbuthnot
The Epistle to Dr. Arbuthnot is a satire in poetic form written by Alexander Pope and addressed to his friend John Arbuthnot, a physician. It was first published in 1735 and composed in 1734, when Pope learned that Arbuthnot was dying. Pope described it as a memorial of their friendship...
(1743), which forms the prologue to the satires. Many of the insinuations and insults contained in it are borrowed from Pulteney's libel.
Some literary critics, such as Martin C. Battestin, suggest that Pope's friend and fellow-satirist, Henry Fielding
Henry Fielding
Henry Fielding was an English novelist and dramatist known for his rich earthy humour and satirical prowess, and as the author of the novel Tom Jones....
intended the character of Beau Didapper in Joseph Andrews
Joseph Andrews
Joseph Andrews, or The History of the Adventures of Joseph Andrews and of his Friend Mr. Abraham Adams, was the first published full-length novel of the English author and magistrate Henry Fielding, and indeed among the first novels in the English language...
to be read as Hervey. Beau Didapper is described as obedient to the commands of a "Great Man" (presumably Walpole) "which he implicitly submitted to, at the Expence of his Conscience, his Honour, and of his Country." Didapper is also compared to Hylas
Hylas
In Greek mythology, Hylas was the son of King Theiodamas of the Dryopians. Roman sources such as Ovid state that Hylas' father was Hercules and his mother was the nymph Melite, or that his mother was the wife of Theiodamas, whose adulterous affair with Heracles caused the war between him and her...
, and is mistaken for a woman in the dark on account of his soft skin.
The malicious caricature of Sporus does Hervey great injustice, and he is not much better treated by Horace Walpole, who in reporting his death in a letter (August 14, 1743) to Horace Mann, said he had outlived his last inch of character. Nevertheless his writings prove him to have been a man of real ability, condemned by Walpole's tactics and distrust of able men to spend his life in court intrigue, the weapons of which, it must be owned, he used with the utmost adroitness. His wife Lady Hervey (1700–1768), of whom an account is to be found in Lady Louisa Stuart
Lady Louisa Stuart
Lady Louisa Stuart was a British writer of the 18th and 19th centuries. Her long life spanned nearly ninety-four years.-Early life:...
's Anecdotes, was a warm partisan of the Stuarts
House of Stuart
The House of Stuart is a European royal house. Founded by Robert II of Scotland, the Stewarts first became monarchs of the Kingdom of Scotland during the late 14th century, and subsequently held the position of the Kings of Great Britain and Ireland...
. She retained her wit and charm throughout her life, and has the distinction of being the recipient of English verses by Voltaire
Voltaire
François-Marie Arouet , better known by the pen name Voltaire , was a French Enlightenment writer, historian and philosopher famous for his wit and for his advocacy of civil liberties, including freedom of religion, free trade and separation of church and state...
.
Sexuality
Hervey was bisexual. He found women attractive: besides to his marriage to Mary Lepell, he had an affair with Anne Vane, and possibly ones with Lady Mary Wortley MontaguLady Mary Wortley Montagu
The Lady Mary Wortley Montagu was an English aristocrat and writer. Montagu is today chiefly remembered for her letters, particularly her letters from Turkey, as wife to the British ambassador, which have been described by Billie Melman as “the very first example of a secular work by a woman about...
and Princess Caroline. But there can also be no doubt that he found men attractive. He lived with Stephen Fox
Stephen Fox-Strangways, 1st Earl of Ilchester
Stephen Fox-Strangways, 1st Earl of Ilchester PC was a British peer and Member of Parliament.Ilchester was the son of Sir Stephen Fox and his second wife Christiana Hope. Henry Fox, 1st Baron Holland, was his younger brother and Charles James Fox his nephew...
often during the decade after he followed him to Italy in 1728. He wrote passionate love letters to Francesco Algarotti
Francesco Algarotti
Count Francesco Algarotti was an Italian philosopher and art critic.He also completed engravings.He was born in Venice to a rich merchant. He studied at Rome for a year, and then Bologna, he studied natural sciences and mathematics...
, whom he first met in 1736. He may have had a sexual affair with Prince Frederick before their friendship dissolved. He was in fact denounced as a sexually ambiguous figure in his time most notably by William Pulteney, then leader of the Opposition and as cited above, by Alexander Pope in his "Sporus" portrait: "Let Sporus tremble/ What that thing of silk...His wit all seesaw between that and this/Now high, now low, now master up, now miss/ And he himself one vile antitheseis...". The affair with Count Algarotti is certain not conjecture. He was also attracted to Henry Fox
Henry Fox, 1st Baron Holland
Henry Fox, 1st Baron Holland, of Foxley, MP, PC was a leading British politician of the 18th century. He identified primarily with the Whig faction...
before his affair with Stephen Fox.
Writings
See Hervey's Memoirs of the Court of George II, edited by John Wilson CrokerJohn Wilson Croker
John Wilson Croker was an Irish statesman and author.He was born at Galway, the only son of John Croker, the surveyor-general of customs and excise in Ireland. He was educated at Trinity College, Dublin, where he graduated in 1800...
(1848); and an article by G. F. Russell Barker in the Dictionary of National Biography
Dictionary of National Biography
The Dictionary of National Biography is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published from 1885...
(vol. xxvi., 1891). Besides the Memoirs he wrote numerous political pamphlets, and some occasional verses.
Modern portrayals
Hervey appears as a character in the 1999 British television series Aristocrats where he is portrayed by Anthony FiniganAnthony Finigan
Anthony "Tony" Finigan was a British theatre, television, radio and film actor, and stage and TV director. He began his career in 1948 as an assistant stage manager....
. He is shown acting as a patron to the younger Henry Fox
Henry Fox, 1st Baron Holland
Henry Fox, 1st Baron Holland, of Foxley, MP, PC was a leading British politician of the 18th century. He identified primarily with the Whig faction...
.