Life

Dayrolles was the nephew and heir of James Dayrolles, king's resident for some time at Geneva

Geneva

Geneva In the national languages of Switzerland the city is known as Genf , Ginevra and Genevra is the second-most-populous city in Switzerland and is the most populous city of Romandie, the French-speaking part of Switzerland...

, and from 1717 to 1739 at The Hague

The Hague

The Hague is the capital city of the province of South Holland in the Netherlands. With a population of 500,000 inhabitants , it is the third largest city of the Netherlands, after Amsterdam and Rotterdam...

, who died on 2 January 1739, was the godson of Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield

Philip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield PC KG was a British statesman and man of letters.A Whig, Lord Stanhope, as he was known until his father's death in 1726, was born in London. After being educated at Trinity Hall, Cambridge, he went on the Grand Tour of the continent...

, the wit and politician, through whose friendship the young official obtained speedy advancement in his profession. He began his diplomatic career under James Waldegrave, 1st Earl Waldegrave

James Waldegrave, 1st Earl Waldegrave

James Waldegrave, 1st Earl Waldegrave KG PC was a British ambassador.Waldegrave was the son of the 1st Baron Waldegrave and Henrietta FitzJames, the illegitimate daughter of James II and Arabella Churchill....

, then ambassador at Vienna

Vienna

Vienna is the capital and largest city of the Republic of Austria and one of the nine states of Austria. Vienna is Austria's primary city, with a population of about 1.723 million , and is by far the largest city in Austria, as well as its cultural, economic, and political centre...

, and when Waldegrave became ambassador at Versailles

Versailles

Versailles , a city renowned for its château, the Palace of Versailles, was the de facto capital of the kingdom of France for over a century, from 1682 to 1789. It is now a wealthy suburb of Paris and remains an important administrative and judicial centre...

, Chesterfield endeavoured to obtain the appointment of secretary to the embassy for his protégé; but in this he was frustrated by superior influence.

Dayrolles was sworn as gentleman of the privy chamber

Privy chamber

A Privy chamber was the private apartment of a royal residence in England. The gentlemen of the Privy chamber were servants to the Crown who would wait and attend on the King and Queen at court during their various activities, functions and entertainments....

 to George II

George II of Great Britain

George II was King of Great Britain and Ireland, Duke of Brunswick-Lüneburg and Archtreasurer and Prince-elector of the Holy Roman Empire from 11 June 1727 until his death.George was the last British monarch born outside Great Britain. He was born and brought up in Northern Germany...

 on 27 February 1740, and retained his place in the court of George III

George 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...

. With the old king he quickly became a personal favourite, and was rewarded by the post of Master of the Revels

Master of the Revels

The Master of the Revels was a position within the English, and later the British, royal household heading the "Revels Office" or "Office of the Revels" that originally had responsibilities for overseeing royal festivities, known as revels, and later also became responsible for stage censorship,...

 (12 April 1744). He was secretary to Lord Chesterfield during the peer's second embassy to The Hague (1745), and when his patron somewhat later in the year entered on his duties as lord-lieutenant of Ireland, Dayrolles accompanied him in the same capacity, and was nominated by him gentleman usher of the black rod

Black Rod

The Gentleman Usher of the Black Rod, generally shortened to just Black Rod, is an official in the parliaments of several Commonwealth countries. The position originates in the House of Lords of the Parliament of the United Kingdom...

 (2 September 1745), a sinecure. Through the personal liking of the king, and Chesterfield's credit with Pelham, the place of king's resident at the Hague was given to Dayrolles on 12 May 1747. He was there for four years, and then was promoted to a similar post at Brussels

Brussels

Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...

, which he held until August 1757.

On his uncle's death in 1739 he inherited a fortune, and in that year he purchased from Sir Richard Child, Earl of Tilney, the estate of Henley Park

Henley Park

Henley Park is a country house and landscape garden in Bix and Assendon civil parish in the Chiltern Hills of South Oxfordshire, England. The house is about north of Henley-on-Thames. The park adjoins the county boundary with Buckinghamshire....

, in the parish of Ash

Ash, Surrey

Ash is a village and civil parish in the borough of Guildford, Surrey, with a population of 17,549 according to the 2001 census. It is at the far west of the Guildford borough, and the urban development in the parish runs directly into Aldershot, which is on the western side of the River...

, near Guildford

Guildford

Guildford is the county town of Surrey. England, as well as the seat for the borough of Guildford and the administrative headquarters of the South East England region...

, which remained his property until 1785. In March 1786 he died, and in the same year his library was sold.

Legacy

Matthew Maty

Matthew Maty

Matthew Maty , originally Matthieu Maty, was a Dutch physician and writer of Huguenot background, and after migration to England secretary of the Royal Society and the second principal librarian of the British Museum.-Early life:...

 was assisted in his Life of Chesterfield by Dayrolles. For years he and Lord Chesterfield kept up a correspondence; his letters from Chesterfield were initially edited by Lord Mahon

Philip Stanhope, 5th Earl Stanhope

Philip Henry Stanhope, 5th Earl Stanhope FRS , styled Viscount Mahon between 1816 and 1855, was a British politician and historian...

. The originals were bought from the heirs of Dayrolles by Messrs. Bentley, and they then passed by purchase to Mahon (by then Lord Stanhope) in April 1846.

Dayrolles's own official correspondence and that of his uncle, comprised in twenty-one folio

Folio

Folio may refer to:* Folio , a book size* A particular edition of a book printed on folio pages, such as the First Folio of William Shakespeare's plays* A leaf of a book: see Recto and verso* Folio , a sans-serif typeface...

 volumes, once belonged to William Upcott

William Upcott

-Life:Born in Oxfordshire, he was the illegitimate son of Ozias Humphry by Delly Wickens, daughter of an Oxford shopkeeper, called Upcott from the maiden name of Humphry's mother. His father bequeathed to him his miniatures, pictures, drawings, and engravings, as well as correspondence with many...

.

Family

He married, on 4 July 1751, Christabella, daughter of Colonel Peterson of Ireland, who is said to have been 'a lady of accomplished manners and dignified appearance.' She died at George Street, Hanover Square

Hanover Square

Hanover Square may refer to:* Hanover Square, London, England* Hanover Square, Manhattan, New York City, USA** Hanover Square , elevated station* Hanover Square, Syracuse, USA-See also:* Hanover Square Rooms, London...

, on 3 August 1791; her age at death is given as 58, so that she must have been considerably younger than her husband. William Cramp, who wanted to fix the identity of Junius

Identity of Junius

Junius was the pseudonym of a writer who contributed a series of political letters to the Public Advertiser, from 21 January 1769 to 21 January 1772 as well as several other London newspapers such as the London Evening Post....

 on Lord Chesterfield, published in 1851 a small pamphlet of Facsimile Autograph Letters of Junius, Lord Chesterfield, and Mrs. C. Dayrolles, showing that the wife of Mr. Solomon Dayrolles was the amanuensis

Amanuensis

Amanuensis is a Latin word adopted in various languages, including English, for certain persons performing a function by hand, either writing down the words of another or performing manual labour...

 employed in copying the Letters of Junius for the printer.

Dayrolles had issue one son, Thomas Philip Dayrolles, a captain in the 10th dragoons, who died at Lausanne

Lausanne

Lausanne is a city in Romandy, the French-speaking part of Switzerland, and is the capital of the canton of Vaud. The seat of the district of Lausanne, the city is situated on the shores of Lake Geneva . It faces the French town of Évian-les-Bains, with the Jura mountains to its north-west...

, having married Mlle. H. G. Thomaset, a Swiss lady; and three daughters. Christabella, the eldest, married in 1784 the Hon. Townsend Ventry. Emily married, on 24 December 1786, the Baron de Reidezel, aide-de-camp to the Duke of Würtemberg; and Mary became the wife, on 6 February 1788, of Richard Croft, junior, a banker in Pall Mall

Pall Mall

-Places:* Pall Mall, urban downtown ares of Bendigo, Australia* Pall Mall, London, a street in the City of Westminster, London* Pall Mall, Tennessee, a small unincorporated community in Fentress County, Tennessee...

. The youngest of these daughters is said to have been the prototype of the vivacious Miss Larolles in Fanny Burney

Fanny Burney

Frances Burney , also known as Fanny Burney and, after her marriage, as Madame d’Arblay, was an English novelist, diarist and playwright. She was born in Lynn Regis, now King’s Lynn, England, on 13 June 1752, to musical historian Dr Charles Burney and Mrs Esther Sleepe Burney...

's novel Cecilia

Cecilia (novel)

Cecilia, subtitled Memoirs of an Heiress, is a novel by Frances Burney, set in 1779 and published in 1782.-Background:Cecilia, or Memoirs of an Heiress was published in July 1782...

.