Thomas Pitt, 1st Baron Camelford
Encyclopedia
Thomas Pitt, 1st Baron Camelford (3 March 1737 – 19 January 1793) was a British
politician
and connoisseur of art.
(died 1761), a brother of William Pitt the Elder
, and was born and baptised at Boconnoc
in Cornwall
on 3 March 1737. His mother was Christian, eldest daughter of Sir Thomas Lyttelton, 4th Baronet
, of Hagley
. He was admitted fellow-commoner at Clare College, Cambridge
, on 7 January 1754, and resided there until 1758. In 1759 Pitt obtained the degree of M.A. per literas regias.
He accompanied Thomas Hay, 9th Earl of Kinnoull
, British ambassador to the court of Portugal, on his journey to Lisbon
in January 1760. Thomas Gray
and his friends contrived that John Bowes, 9th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne
, a college companion, should go with him; and Philip Francis
, a life-long friend, also joined the expedition. They entered the Tagus on 7 March 1760, and left Lisbon on 21 May 1760. Passing through Spain to Barcelona, they crossed to Genoa
, and passed some time in Italy. Pitt corresponded with Gray, and wrote a manuscript journal of his travels; Cole notes that the description of the bull-fight in the manuscript is identical with that in Edward Clarke's Letters on the Spanish Nation. Horace Walpole introduced Pitt to Sir Horace Mann
at Florence
, and praised his conduct in cutting off the entail
to pay his father's debts and to provide for his sisters. Pitt was staying at Florence with his uncle, Sir Richard Lyttelton
, when news arrived of the death of his father, on 17 July 1761.
of Old Sarum
and a considerable share in that of Okehampton
in Devon
. At intervals, Pitt now played an active part in politics. He was a Member of Parliament
of the House of Commons
for Old Sarum from December 1761 until 1768, for Okehampton from 1768 until 1774, and again for Old Sarum from 1774 until he was raised to the peerage in 1784. He followed in politics his near relative, George Grenville
, who made him a lord of the admiralty in his ministry of 1763. He was invited, in compliment to his uncle, Chatham, to continue in office with the Rockingham ministry; but he was politically at variance with Chatham, and followed Grenville into opposition.
He was one of the seventy-two whig members who met at the Thatched House Tavern, London, on 9 May 1769, to celebrate the rights of electors in the struggle for the representation of Middlesex; he seconded Sir William Meredith in his attempt to relax the subscription to the Thirty-nine Articles
, and he spoke against the Royal Marriage Bill. Through his influence, supported by Lady Chatham, the reconciliation of his uncle and Richard Grenville-Temple, 2nd Earl Temple
was effected in 1774. Horace Walpole, who quarrelled with him on political topics, calls him a ‘flimsy’ speaker, but Wraxall remarked that, although he rarely spoke, his family position guaranteed him an audience. He made a speech in 1780 on John Dunning
's motion to limit the influence of the Crown. He was one of the strongest opponents of Lord North's ministry, and a warm antagonist of the coalition. In November 1781 he protested against voting supplies until grievances were redressed. In February 1783 he moved the address for the Shelburne ministry, protesting that he had always been opposed to the use of force against the American colonies, and he attacked Charles James Fox
's East India Bill.
He spoke carefully in 1782 against parliamentary reform. Next year, when the same question was brought forward, he was ridiculed for a change of opinion, and his offer to sacrifice his rotten borough for the public good. He was satirised by the authors of the Rolliad
(1795), and was chaffed in the House of Commons by Fox (13 March 1784) and Edmund Burke
(28 February 1785). In March 1783, when the king was endeavouring to form an administration in opposition to North and Fox, the leadership of the House of Commons and the seals of a secretary of state were offered to him, despite opposition from Lord Ashburton. On 5 January 1784 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Camelford of Boconnoc, a promotion attributed to the influence of his cousin William Pitt the Younger
.
, playfully calling his house the ‘Palazzo Pitti.’ He was then the neighbour of Horace Walpole, who recognised his skill in Gothic architecture, and went so far as to call him ‘my present architect.’ On the death in 1779 of William Stanhope, 2nd Earl of Harrington
, he bought the lease of Petersham Lodge (beneath Richmond Park
, but now demolished and the grounds included in the park boundaries), and he purchased the fee-simple in 1784 from the crown, an act of parliament being passed for that purpose. In 1790 it was sold by him to the Duke of Clarence
.
Pitt also built Camelford House, fronting Oxford Street, at the top of Park Lane, London; and as a member of the Dilettanti Society, to which he had been elected on 1 May 1763, he proposed in February 1785 that the shells of two adjoining houses constructed by him in Hereford Street should be completed by the society for a public museum, but financial considerations put a stop to the project.
He interested himself in the porcelain
manufactory at Plymouth
, where they used the white saponaceous clay found on his land in Cornwall. Angelica Kauffmann
wrote to him on the free importation into England by artists of their own studies and designs. Pitt was a friend of Mary Delany
, to whom he gave for her lifetime portraits of Sir Bevil Grenville, his wife, and his father, and he proposed to John Maurice, Count of Brühl that they should jointly assist Thomas Mudge
in his plans for the improvement of nautical chronometers. The wainscoting of the stalls in Carlisle Cathedral
, where his uncle Charles Lyttelton
was bishop, was designed by him.
says in his ‘Familiar Letters’ (1805 edit. i. 159), that Lord Camelford ‘left Florence for Pisa with the gout upon him, and died immediately on his arrival;’ but it is generally said that he died at Florence on 19 January 1793. He was buried on 2 March at Boconnoc, where he had added to the old mansion, from his own designs, a second wing and gallery. In 1771 he had erected, on the hill above the house, an obelisk
, 123 feet high, to the memory of his uncle, Sir Richard Lyttelton.
and Anne. She was the younger daughter and coheiress of Pinckney Wilkinson, a rich merchant of Hanover Square
, London, and Burnham, Norfolk. She died at Camelford House, Oxford Street, London, on 5 May 1803, aged 65, pining from grief at the career of her son, and was buried in the vault in Boconnoc churchyard on 19 May. Anne, born in September 1772. In March 1773 William Wyndham Grenville, Baron Grenville wrote that the girl was ‘either dying or actually dead,’ but she lived to marry him in 1792, and survived until June 1864. Lady Camelford's sister Mary made an unhappy marriage, in 1760, with Captain John Smith, by whom she was mother of Admiral Sir Sidney Smith. Camelford, who treated his sister-in-law and her children with much kindness, printed in 1785 a ‘Narrative and Proofs’ of Smith's bad conduct.
In his biography of Horace Walpole, Timothy Mowl says Pitt was a homosexual who "was 'outed' by that early queer-basher Mrs. Thrale". She called him ‘a finical, lady-like man’ and by Sir J. Eardley-Wilmot he was dubbed in 1765 ‘the prince of all the male beauties,’ and ‘very well bred, polite, and sensible’.
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
politician
Politician
A politician, political leader, or political figure is an individual who is involved in influencing public policy and decision making...
and connoisseur of art.
Early life
He was the son of Thomas Pitt of BoconnocThomas Pitt of Boconnoc
Thomas Pitt of Boconnoc was the Lord Warden of the Stannaries until 1751, when the Cornish Stannary Parliament last met. He was the grandson and namesake of the better known Thomas Pitt, and the son of Robert Pitt and elder brother of William Pitt the Elder...
(died 1761), a brother of William Pitt the Elder
William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham
William Pitt, 1st Earl of Chatham PC was a British Whig statesman who led Britain during the Seven Years' War...
, and was born and baptised at Boconnoc
Boconnoc
Boconnoc is a civil parish in Cornwall, United Kingdom, approximately four miles east of Lostwithiel. According to the 2001 census the parish had a population of 121.The parish is rural in character and is fairly well wooded...
in Cornwall
Cornwall
Cornwall is a unitary authority and ceremonial county of England, within the United Kingdom. It is bordered to the north and west by the Celtic Sea, to the south by the English Channel, and to the east by the county of Devon, over the River Tamar. Cornwall has a population of , and covers an area of...
on 3 March 1737. His mother was Christian, eldest daughter of Sir Thomas Lyttelton, 4th Baronet
Sir Thomas Lyttelton, 4th Baronet
Sir Thomas Lyttelton, 4th Baronet was the eldest son of Sir Charles Lyttelton, 3rd Baronet and inherited the family estates in Frankley, Halesowen, Hagley, and Upper Arley on his death in 1716....
, of Hagley
Hagley
Hagley is a village and civil parish on the northern boundary of Worcestershire, England, near to the towns of Kidderminster and Stourbridge. The parish had a population of 4,283 in 2001, but the whole village had a population of perhaps 5,600, including the part in Clent parish...
. He was admitted fellow-commoner 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"...
, on 7 January 1754, and resided there until 1758. In 1759 Pitt obtained the degree of M.A. per literas regias.
He accompanied Thomas Hay, 9th Earl of Kinnoull
Thomas Hay, 9th Earl of Kinnoull
Thomas Hay, 9th Earl of Kinnoull PC was a Scottish peer and British politician.Hay was elected for Scarborough in 1736, but his election was overturned on petition. He sat as Member of Parliament for Cambridge from 1741 until 1758...
, British ambassador to the court of Portugal, on his journey to Lisbon
Lisbon
Lisbon is the capital city and largest city of Portugal with a population of 545,245 within its administrative limits on a land area of . The urban area of Lisbon extends beyond the administrative city limits with a population of 3 million on an area of , making it the 9th most populous urban...
in January 1760. Thomas Gray
Thomas Gray
Thomas Gray was a poet, letter-writer, classical scholar and professor at Cambridge University.-Early life and education:...
and his friends contrived that John Bowes, 9th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne
John Bowes, 9th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne
John Bowes , born John Lyon, was the 9th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne and one of the ancestors of the Queen Mother. His father was Thomas Lyon, 8th Earl of Strathmore and Kinghorne and his mother was the former Jean Nicholsen.In 1767 he married Mary Eleanor Bowes, and upon the request of the...
, a college companion, should go with him; and Philip Francis
Philip Francis
Philip Francis may refer to:*Philip Francis , English politician*Francis Philip Francis , English cricketer*Philip Francis , American golfer...
, a life-long friend, also joined the expedition. They entered the Tagus on 7 March 1760, and left Lisbon on 21 May 1760. Passing through Spain to Barcelona, they crossed to Genoa
Genoa
Genoa |Ligurian]] Zena ; Latin and, archaically, English Genua) is a city and an important seaport in northern Italy, the capital of the Province of Genoa and of the region of Liguria....
, and passed some time in Italy. Pitt corresponded with Gray, and wrote a manuscript journal of his travels; Cole notes that the description of the bull-fight in the manuscript is identical with that in Edward Clarke's Letters on the Spanish Nation. Horace Walpole introduced Pitt to Sir Horace Mann
Sir Horace Mann, 1st Baronet
Sir Horace Mann, 1st Baronet KB , diplomat, was a long standing British resident in Florence.-Biography:...
at Florence
Florence
Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....
, and praised his conduct in cutting off the entail
Entail
Entail may refer to:* Fee tail, a term of art in common law describing a limited form of succession....
to pay his father's debts and to provide for his sisters. Pitt was staying at Florence with his uncle, Sir Richard Lyttelton
Richard Lyttelton
Lt-General Sir Richard Lyttelton KB was a British soldier and politician who served in the British Army. He was the fourth son of Sir Thomas Lyttelton, 4th Baronet. He served as Governor of Minorca from 1763 until 1766 after its restoration to British rule following the fall of Minorca to the...
, when news arrived of the death of his father, on 17 July 1761.
In politics
He now became owner of the controlling interest in the rotten boroughRotten borough
A "rotten", "decayed" or pocket borough was a parliamentary borough or constituency in the United Kingdom that had a very small electorate and could be used by a patron to gain undue and unrepresentative influence within Parliament....
of Old Sarum
Old Sarum (UK Parliament constituency)
Old Sarum was the most infamous of the so-called 'rotten boroughs', a parliamentary constituency of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland which was effectively controlled by a single person, until it was abolished under the Reform Act 1832. The constituency was the site of what had been...
and a considerable share in that of Okehampton
Okehampton (UK Parliament constituency)
Okehampton was a parliamentary borough in Devon, which elected two Members of Parliament to the House of Commons in 1301 and 1313, then continuously from 1640 to 1832, when the borough was abolished by the Great Reform Act.-History:...
in Devon
Devon
Devon is a large county in southwestern England. The county is sometimes referred to as Devonshire, although the term is rarely used inside the county itself as the county has never been officially "shired", it often indicates a traditional or historical context.The county shares borders with...
. At intervals, Pitt now played an active part in politics. He was a Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
of the House of Commons
British House of Commons
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...
for Old Sarum from December 1761 until 1768, for Okehampton from 1768 until 1774, and again for Old Sarum from 1774 until he was raised to the peerage in 1784. He followed in politics his near relative, George Grenville
George Grenville
George Grenville was a British Whig statesman who rose to the position of Prime Minister of Great Britain. Grenville was born into an influential political family and first entered Parliament in 1741 as an MP for Buckingham...
, who made him a lord of the admiralty in his ministry of 1763. He was invited, in compliment to his uncle, Chatham, to continue in office with the Rockingham ministry; but he was politically at variance with Chatham, and followed Grenville into opposition.
He was one of the seventy-two whig members who met at the Thatched House Tavern, London, on 9 May 1769, to celebrate the rights of electors in the struggle for the representation of Middlesex; he seconded Sir William Meredith in his attempt to relax the subscription to the Thirty-nine Articles
Thirty-Nine Articles
The Thirty-Nine Articles of Religion are the historically defining statements of doctrines of the Anglican church with respect to the controversies of the English Reformation. First established in 1563, the articles served to define the doctrine of the nascent Church of England as it related to...
, and he spoke against the Royal Marriage Bill. Through his influence, supported by Lady Chatham, the reconciliation of his uncle and Richard Grenville-Temple, 2nd Earl Temple
Richard Grenville-Temple, 2nd Earl Temple
Richard Grenville-Temple, 2nd Earl Temple KG, PC was a British politician. He is best known for his association with his brother-in-law William Pitt who he served with in government during Britain's participation in the Seven Years War between 1756 and 1761...
was effected in 1774. Horace Walpole, who quarrelled with him on political topics, calls him a ‘flimsy’ speaker, but Wraxall remarked that, although he rarely spoke, his family position guaranteed him an audience. He made a speech in 1780 on John Dunning
John Dunning, 1st Baron Ashburton
John Dunning, 1st Baron Ashburton was an English lawyer and politician.He was first noticed in English politics when he wrote a notice in 1762 defending the British East India Company merchants against their Dutch rivals. He was a Member of Parliament from 1768 onward...
's motion to limit the influence of the Crown. He was one of the strongest opponents of Lord North's ministry, and a warm antagonist of the coalition. In November 1781 he protested against voting supplies until grievances were redressed. In February 1783 he moved the address for the Shelburne ministry, protesting that he had always been opposed to the use of force against the American colonies, and he attacked Charles James Fox
Charles James Fox
Charles James Fox PC , styled The Honourable from 1762, was a prominent British Whig statesman whose parliamentary career spanned thirty-eight years of the late 18th and early 19th centuries and who was particularly noted for being the arch-rival of William Pitt the Younger...
's East India Bill.
He spoke carefully in 1782 against parliamentary reform. Next year, when the same question was brought forward, he was ridiculed for a change of opinion, and his offer to sacrifice his rotten borough for the public good. He was satirised by the authors of the Rolliad
Rolliad
The Rolliad, in full Criticisms on the Rolliad, is a pioneering work of British satire directed principally at the administration of William Pitt the Younger...
(1795), and was chaffed in the House of Commons by Fox (13 March 1784) and Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke
Edmund Burke PC was an Irish statesman, author, orator, political theorist and philosopher who, after moving to England, served for many years in the House of Commons of Great Britain as a member of the Whig party....
(28 February 1785). In March 1783, when the king was endeavouring to form an administration in opposition to North and Fox, the leadership of the House of Commons and the seals of a secretary of state were offered to him, despite opposition from Lord Ashburton. On 5 January 1784 he was raised to the peerage as Baron Camelford of Boconnoc, a promotion attributed to the influence of his cousin William Pitt the Younger
William Pitt the Younger
William Pitt the Younger was a British politician of the late 18th and early 19th centuries. He became the youngest Prime Minister in 1783 at the age of 24 . He left office in 1801, but was Prime Minister again from 1804 until his death in 1806...
.
Dilettante
From March 1762 Pitt lived at TwickenhamTwickenham
Twickenham is a large suburban town southwest of central London. It is the administrative headquarters of the London Borough of Richmond upon Thames and one of the locally important district centres identified in the London Plan...
, playfully calling his house the ‘Palazzo Pitti.’ He was then the neighbour of Horace Walpole, who recognised his skill in Gothic architecture, and went so far as to call him ‘my present architect.’ On the death in 1779 of William Stanhope, 2nd Earl of Harrington
William Stanhope, 2nd Earl of Harrington
General William Stanhope, 2nd Earl of Harrington was a British politician and soldier.The son of William Stanhope, 1st Earl of Harrington, he took up a military career and joined the Foot Guards in 1741, and was also returned for Aylesbury...
, he bought the lease of Petersham Lodge (beneath Richmond Park
Richmond Park
Richmond Park is a 2,360 acre park within London. It is the largest of the Royal Parks in London and Britain's second largest urban walled park after Sutton Park, Birmingham. It is close to Richmond, Ham, Kingston upon Thames, Wimbledon, Roehampton and East Sheen...
, but now demolished and the grounds included in the park boundaries), and he purchased the fee-simple in 1784 from the crown, an act of parliament being passed for that purpose. In 1790 it was sold by him to the Duke of Clarence
Duke of Clarence
Duke of Clarence is a title which has been traditionally awarded to junior members of the English and British Royal families. The first three creations were in the Peerage of England, the fourth in the Peerage of Great Britain, and the fifth in the Peerage of the United Kingdom.The title was first...
.
Pitt also built Camelford House, fronting Oxford Street, at the top of Park Lane, London; and as a member of the Dilettanti Society, to which he had been elected on 1 May 1763, he proposed in February 1785 that the shells of two adjoining houses constructed by him in Hereford Street should be completed by the society for a public museum, but financial considerations put a stop to the project.
He interested himself in the porcelain
Porcelain
Porcelain is a ceramic material made by heating raw materials, generally including clay in the form of kaolin, in a kiln to temperatures between and...
manufactory at Plymouth
Plymouth
Plymouth is a city and unitary authority area on the coast of Devon, England, about south-west of London. It is built between the mouths of the rivers Plym to the east and Tamar to the west, where they join Plymouth Sound...
, where they used the white saponaceous clay found on his land in Cornwall. Angelica Kauffmann
Angelica Kauffmann
Maria Anna Angelika/Angelica Katharina Kauffman was a Swiss-Austrian Neoclassical painter. Kauffman is the preferred spelling of her name; it is the form she herself used most in signing her correspondence, documents and paintings.- Early years :She was born at Chur in Graubünden, Switzerland,...
wrote to him on the free importation into England by artists of their own studies and designs. Pitt was a friend of Mary Delany
Mary Delany
Mary Delany was an English Bluestocking, artist, and letter-writer; equally famous for her "paper-mosaicks" and her lively correspondence.-Early life:...
, to whom he gave for her lifetime portraits of Sir Bevil Grenville, his wife, and his father, and he proposed to John Maurice, Count of Brühl that they should jointly assist Thomas Mudge
Thomas Mudge (horologist)
Thomas Mudge was an English horologist who invented the lever escapement, the greatest single improvement ever applied to pocket watches.-Early life:...
in his plans for the improvement of nautical chronometers. The wainscoting of the stalls in Carlisle Cathedral
Carlisle Cathedral
The Cathedral Church of the Holy and Undivided Trinity, otherwise called Carlisle Cathedral, is the seat of the Anglican Bishop of Carlisle. It is located in Carlisle, in Cumbria, North West England...
, where his uncle Charles Lyttelton
Charles Lyttelton (bishop)
Charles Lyttelton was an English churchman and antiquary, bishop of Carlisle from 1762.-Life:He was third son of Sir Thomas Lyttelton, 4th Baronet, by his wife Christian, daughter of Sir Richard Temple, 3rd Baronet of Stowe, Buckinghamshire...
was bishop, was designed by him.
Later years
From 1789 to 1792 he was in Italy, and, although he landed at Deal in June 1792, he left for the continent again in September. Peter BeckfordPeter Beckford
Colonel Peter Beckford was acting Governor of Jamaica in 1702.Peter was the son of another Peter Beckford, of Maidenhead. Sir Thomas Beckford, Sheriff of London was his uncle as was Captain Richard Beckford, who was trading in Jamaica from 1659...
says in his ‘Familiar Letters’ (1805 edit. i. 159), that Lord Camelford ‘left Florence for Pisa with the gout upon him, and died immediately on his arrival;’ but it is generally said that he died at Florence on 19 January 1793. He was buried on 2 March at Boconnoc, where he had added to the old mansion, from his own designs, a second wing and gallery. In 1771 he had erected, on the hill above the house, an obelisk
Obelisk
An obelisk is a tall, four-sided, narrow tapering monument which ends in a pyramid-like shape at the top, and is said to resemble a petrified ray of the sun-disk. A pair of obelisks usually stood in front of a pylon...
, 123 feet high, to the memory of his uncle, Sir Richard Lyttelton.
Attributed works
Some tracts have been attributed to Camelford. Sir John Sinclair credits him with a reply to his own ‘Lucubrations during a Short Recess,’ 1782 . A few days after his elevation to the peerage a pamphlet, in which ‘the constitutional right of the House of Commons to advise the sovereign’ was upheld, was attributed to Camelford, and referred to in parliament by Burke, who also ridiculed him as the alleged author of a tract relating to parliamentary reform. In the autumn of 1789 Camelford found it necessary to deny that he had published a treatise on French affairs. He is included in Park's edition of Walpole's ‘Royal and Noble Authors,’ iv. 348–50, as ‘the reputed author of a tract concerning the American war.’Family and sexuality
In July 1771 Pitt married Anne Wilkinson with whom he had two children, ThomasThomas Pitt, 2nd Baron Camelford
Thomas Pitt, 2nd Baron Camelford was a British peer, naval officer and wastrel, best known for bedevilling George Vancouver during and after the latter's great voyage of exploration.-Early life:...
and Anne. She was the younger daughter and coheiress of Pinckney Wilkinson, a rich merchant of Hanover Square
Hanover Square, London
Hanover Square, London, is a square in Mayfair, London W1, England, situated to the south west of Oxford Circus, the major junction where Oxford Street meets Regent Street....
, London, and Burnham, Norfolk. She died at Camelford House, Oxford Street, London, on 5 May 1803, aged 65, pining from grief at the career of her son, and was buried in the vault in Boconnoc churchyard on 19 May. Anne, born in September 1772. In March 1773 William Wyndham Grenville, Baron Grenville wrote that the girl was ‘either dying or actually dead,’ but she lived to marry him in 1792, and survived until June 1864. Lady Camelford's sister Mary made an unhappy marriage, in 1760, with Captain John Smith, by whom she was mother of Admiral Sir Sidney Smith. Camelford, who treated his sister-in-law and her children with much kindness, printed in 1785 a ‘Narrative and Proofs’ of Smith's bad conduct.
In his biography of Horace Walpole, Timothy Mowl says Pitt was a homosexual who "was 'outed' by that early queer-basher Mrs. Thrale". She called him ‘a finical, lady-like man’ and by Sir J. Eardley-Wilmot he was dubbed in 1765 ‘the prince of all the male beauties,’ and ‘very well bred, polite, and sensible’.