The Unpublished Letters of Henry St John, First Viscount Bolingbroke Vol 5

Adrian Lashmore-Davies, Mark Goldie

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2020
• Print ISBN: 9781138763487
• eBook ISBN: 9781000162066
• Topic: Historia
• Subtopic: Historia del mundo

Henry St John, First Viscount Bolingbroke (1678-1751) enjoyed varied political and literary careers. This five-volume edition draws together his letters. It includes a general introduction, headnotes, biographical index and a consolidated index. It is suitable for historians and literary scholars working in the eighteenth century.

1298. TO: SIMON HARCOURT, BARON HARCOURT, afterwards 1st VISCOUNT HARCOURT.¹ Paris. 1/12 July 1720. [Contemporary copy in unidentified hand.] Text: MS, BL Add. 15916, fols 33–4.

Paris July 12/1. 1720

My Lord

All the ill news which I have been accustomed to receive has never given me any concern comparable to that which I am at present under. at my return from a journey which I was obliged to take, I found M^r Harcourt² a little & but a little, indispos’d. he had had y^e piles, & a small flux, both were gone off, but a small feavorish impression remain’d. The two Physitians, who attended him, assured me, there was not the least appearance of danger in his case, & agreed that he wou’d be in a condition to goe with me this morning three leagues out of town, where I have a house, & where they thought it wou’d be proper for him to rest, gather strength & prepare for his journey home. the night before last he had a strong fitt both cold, & hott, it went off gradually, & with very strong sweating, this instead of disheartning encouraged y^e Physitians, they expected y^e intermission to give him the proper remedys, but on a sudden his sweat stopp’d entirely, his extremitys became cold, & all the methods that were used to bring heat into him, & to restore his sweats proved ineffectual, in short my Lord he dy’d at three this morning to my unspeakable grief, as it will be to y^r Lordships.

I am verily perswaded that nothing was neglected, which art & care cou’d administer, sure it is that if my brother had been in his case, I cou’d not have been more concern’d at y^e danger, nor more attentive to doe all in my power to save him. I shall take care that every thing proper to be further done on this melancholy occasion be comply’d with. my Dear Lord Adieu. you will find greater supplys of strength to bear this blow in your own excellent sence, than I am able to furnish you with, I have therefore nothing more to add but y^e most sincere assurances of my being as long as I live y^r Lordships most obedient humble servant

B/

Endorsement (in another hand): Copy of L^d Boling/brokes letter to L^d/Har-court giving an/acco[un]^t of his sons/death at Paris 12/July N: S: 1720.

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1. Simon Harcourt (1661–1727), Baron Harcourt, was one of the few Tories of Queen Anne’s reign to succeed in winning political office after the Hanoverian succession, serving as a Privy Councilor from 25 August 1722 until his death, and as Lord Justice, 1723, 1725 and 1727. He was created Viscount Harcourt on 24 July 1721, and accepted a pension of £4,000 p.a. from Prime Minister Walpole. HOP, vol. 4, pp. 200, 218. Swift referred to him as ‘trimming Harcourt’ in The Fagot (?1713).

2. Simon Harcourt (1684–1720), Baron Harcourt’s second son; MP for Wallingford, 1710–13, and Abingdon, 1713–15. In 1713, he acted as secretary of a dining society which included B., the Duke of Shrewsbury, Lord Edward Harley, and Sir William Wyndham. He had a reputation for outspoken Jacobite views. HOP, vol. 4, p. 223. For Dr Johnson’s comments on Pope’s epitaph on Harcourt junior, see Johnson, Lives, ed. Lonsdale, vol. 4, pp. 84–5.

1299. TO: HENRIETTA ST JOHN, afterwards LADY LUXBOROUGH. n.p. 23 July [n.s.] 1720. Text: MS, BL Add. 34196, fol. 11.

I receiv’d the other day two pleasures att once which touch’d me very sensibly. the arrival of my B,¹ and y^r letter. I am too just, my dear Girl, not to be persuaded of your sincerity, and therefore I take all the expressions which flow from y^r pen to flow from y^r heart. be just in your turn, and be persuaded y^r I love you entirely. when I may be able to tell you so by word of mouth I know not. my merit falls very short of what y^r friendship for me represents it to y^r imagination; but such as it is, whether it will keep me out or bring me home is perhaps very uncertain, in the first case my principal and almost my only concern will be y^e absence from my family, & y^e impossibility of doing it much service. all other considerations weigh little with me.

french fashions of all sorts are I find in vogue amongst you, and english Ladys stock job as well as french.² I wish you may have better fortune than y^e greatest number have had here, where losses have been real, and most of y^e gain imaginary. M^e de V:³ writes her self by this post, as I did by the last to my Lord.⁴ we do not att all despair of licking our young Cub into form very soon. the truth is he is extreamly raw, but he seems to have docility & parts enough to make an honest man. provided he comes to have what is essential to a good character, I shall be very indifferent whether he has the trappings & ornaments of it or no. M^elle Haissé⁵ is too young & too hansome to take for her Master a dull retir’d fellow as I am. I seldom go into y^e world, and she must have stronger temptations than I have to offer to call her out of it. many compliments pray to M^rs Gower as well as to her husband, and thank y^m both for these marks of their remembrance which I have some times receiv’d.⁶

I have not yet seen y^e young Man⁷ who came over w^th jack. I thought proper to give him three or four days to turn himself round att Paris. to morrow or next day y^r Brother shall go over & bring him hither. in y^e mean while I have sent to make him compliments.

Adieu my Dear Girl I am ever most truly and most affectionately yours.

July y^e 23^d1720.

Endorsement (in another hand): 23^d of July 1720/Lord Bolingbroke/to his sister Miss S^t John

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1. B.’s half-brother, John St John, afterwards second Lord St John; he is referred to by name at the end of this letter as ‘Jack’. After Eton, John was sent to Paris to finish his education under B.’s supervision. In 1721, B.’s father, Lord St John, invested £4,000 in a customs sinecure worth £1,200 p.a. for John and his other son Holles (1710–38). After Lord St John’s death, B. gave up Lydiard Tregoze to John in the hope that he might ‘restore that family seat, and that by living there decently and hospitably he might restore a family interest, too much and too long neglected.’ (Letter 1498.)

2. Cf. letter 1297 note 2.

3. Marie-Claire de Marcilly, Marquise de Villette, B.’s second wife.

4. B.’s letter to his father, Lord St John untraced.

5. Charlotte Elisabeth Aïssé (c. 1694–1733), governess and celebrated letter-writer. See Lettres de Mademoiselle Aïssé a Madame Calandrini, ed. Jules Ravenel (Paris, 1846), and letter 1343 below.

6.. Frances Gower, wife of Nathaniel Gower (1691–1727), M. A., Pembroke College, Oxford. Nathaniel Gower was curate of Battersea, 1693; vicar of Battersea, 20 October 1701–4 October 1727 (appointed upon Sir Walter St John’s recommendation); appointed first master of Sir Walter’s free school, Battersea, 18 March 1702. He was author of The necessity of self-reflexion, in order to a holy life. A sermon Preach’d before the Court of Aldermen, &c. at the Cathedral Church of St. Paul, On Sunday, May 1. 1709 (London: G. J. for Jonah Bowyer, 1709). When Nathaniel Gower died, B. appointed George Osborn as vicar of Battersea on 4 October 1727. John Georg...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Half Title
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Table of Contents
• Letters 12 July 1720–Undated Letters
• Index