Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 26.djvu/200

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
Herbert
194
Herbert

rival Wilmington failed (10 Feb. 1707-8) (ib. vi. 405-6). In January 1707-8 he succeeded to his father's place in the House of Lords. The pecuniary embarrassment which he inherited from his father increased rapidly in his hands. He was an ardent whig in politics, and spent more than he could afford in electoral contests. He was disappointed of hopes of office, and died suddenly (it is said by his own hand) at his house at Ribbesford in April 1738 (cf. W. Noake, Guide to Worcestershire). He had no issue, and his widow, who became lady of the bedchamber to Anne, George II's daughter and princess of Orange, died 19 Oct. 1770. His will is printed in the ‘Powysland Club Collections,’ vii. 157-9. He left his chief property, Ribbesford, to a cousin, Henry Morley (d. 1781), on whose death it fell to Morley's sister Magdalena. She died in 1782 and left it to a kinsman, George Paulet, twelfth marquis of Winchester, who sold it to Francis Ingram, esq.

[Powysland Club Collections, vii. 156 sq. and xi. 344sq.; Warner's Epistolary Curiosities, 1818; Chester's Marriage Licenses, ed. Foster, p. 669; Annals of Anne, viii. 361.]

S. L. L.

HERBERT, HENRY, ninth Earl of Pembroke and sixth Earl of Montgomery (1693–1751), lieutenant-general, called ‘the architect earl,’ eldest of the seven sons of Thomas, eighth earl of Pembroke [q. v.], by his first wife, was born 29 Jan. 1693. On the accession of George I he was appointed lord of the bedchamber to the Prince of Wales, in which appointment he was confirmed on the prince's accession to the throne as George II in 1727. Meantime he had been made captain and lieutenant-colonel of the Coldstream regiment of foot-guards, 12 Aug. 1717, and captain and colonel of the first troop of horse-guards, 10 Sept. 1721, which he subsequently exchanged for the colonelcy of the king's regiment of horse, now the 1st or king's dragoon guards (22 June 1733). He was made groom of the stole in 1735, and attained the rank of lieutenant-general on 18 Feb. 1741-2. He was one of the lords justices during the absence of the king from England in 1740, and again in 1743 and in 1748.

He appears to have inherited his father's taste as a virtuoso, but applied it chiefly to architecture. Horace Walpole (Anecdotes of Painting, Wornum, iii. 771-2) speaks of him as a second Inigo Jones, and instances as examples of his taste and skill in architectural design his improvements at the family seat, Wilton House, the new lodge in Richmond Park, the Countess of Suffolk's house, Marble Hill, Twickenham, and the water house in Lord Orford's park at Houghton.

He rendered valuable public service in promoting the erection of Westminster Bridge (since rebuilt), for which an act of parliament was obtained in 1736 (9 Geo. II), and he advocated the claims of the Swiss architect, Charles Labelye, against the powerful interest made for Nicholas Hawksmoor [q. v.], and Batty Langley [q. v.] (ib.) Pembroke laid the first stone of the structure with great ceremony in 1739, and the last stone in 1750. Serious difficulties were encountered in carrying out the undertaking, which gave a great impetus in bridge-building in England, particularly in London. He was elected F.R.S. 15 Dec. 1743. He died suddenly at his residence in Privy Gardens, Whitehall, 9 June 1751. There is an engraved portrait by J. Bretherton.

Pembroke married, 28 Aug. 1733, Mary, eldest daughter of Richard, viscount Fitzwilliam in the peerage of Ireland, who had been a maid of honour to Queen Caroline. Their only son, Henry Herbert, tenth earl of Pembroke, is separately noticed. The countess survived her husband; afterwards married Major North Ludlow Barnard, and died in 1769.

[Foster's Peerage under ‘Pembroke and Montgomery;’ Doyle's Official Baronage; Collins's Peerage, 1812 ed., iii. 142-5; H. Walpole's Anecdotes of Painting (Wornum), iii. 771-2, which contains a portrait of Lord Pembroke; H. Walpole's Letters, passim; Nichols's Lit. Anecd. Particulars of the erection, &c., of Westminster Bridge will be found in Cresy's Encycl. of Civil Engineering, London, 1856, pp. 422-5, and in the report on Westminster Bridge in Parl. Papers, Reports of Select Committees, 1844, vol. vi.]

H. M. C.

HERBERT, HENRY, tenth Earl of Pembroke and seventh of Montgomery (1734–1794), general, eldest son of Henry, ninth earl of Pembroke [q. v.], was born 3 July 1734. He travelled for several years on the continent, was appointed cornet in his father's regiment of dragoon guards, 12 Oct. 1752, and became captain therein in 1754, and captain and lieutenant-colonel 1st foot-guards in 1756, having previously taken his seat in the house and been made lord-lieutenant of Wiltshire. He was also appointed a lord of the bedchamber to the Prince of Wales (November 1756), in which he was confirmed on the accession of the prince to the throne as George III. He was made aide-de-camp to George II (8 May 1758). On the formation of Eliott's famous light horse (now 15th hussars) in 1759, Pembroke, who appears to have been regarded as an authority on the manége, was appointed lieutenant-colonel. He took the regiment out to Ger-