HERVEY, JAMES, M.D. (1751?–1824), physician, born about 1751, was the son of William Hervey of London. He matriculated at Oxford, from Queen's College, on 19 Nov. 1767, and proceeded B.A. 1771, M.A. 1774, M.B. 1777, M.D. 1781 (Foster, Alumni Oxon. 1715-1886, ii. 650). He was elected physician to Guy's Hospital in 1779, was admitted a candidate of the Royal College of Physicians on 1 Oct. 1781,and a fellow on 30 Sept. 1782. He was Gulstonian lecturer in 1783, censor in 1783, 1787, 1789, 1795, 1802, and 1809, registrar from 1784 to 1814, Harveian orator in 1785, Lumleian lecturer from 1789 to 1811, and elect on 4 May 1809. Hervey was the first appointed registrar of the National Vaccine Establishment. He died in 1824.
[Munk's Coll. of Phys. 1878, ii. 330.]
HERVEY, JOHN (1616–1679), treasurer of the household of Queen Catherine of Braganza, born on 18 Aug. 1616, was the eldest son of Sir William Hervey, knt., M.P., of Ickworth, Suffolk, by Susan, daughter of Sir Robert Jermyn, kt., of Rushbrook, Suffolk. Robert Sidney, second earl of Leicester, while he was ambassador in France in 1636, received him into his house, and ever after entertained a warm friendship for him (Sidney State Papers, ii. 680-l). At the Restoration Hervey was constituted treasurer of the household to the queen. On 7 Dec. 1664 he was elected F.R.S. (Thompson, Hist. of Roy. Soc. Append. iv. p. xxiv), but he never presented himself for admission. He was elected M.P. for Hythe on 6 May 1661, and sat for nearly eighteen years (Lists of Members of Parliament, i. 532). Though a great favourite of Charles II, he is said by Burnet to have once voted adversely to the court on an important division, and was in consequence severely rebuked by the king. Upon his voting the next day as the king wished, Charles said, 'You were not against me to-day.' Hervey answered, 'No, sir; I was against my conscience today' (Burnet, Own Time, Oxford ed., 1823, ii. 71). He was a patron of men of letters, and by his recommendation Abraham Cowley [q. v.] was taken into the service of his kinsman, Henry, earl of St. Albans. He died on 18 Jan. 1679. He married Elizabeth, daughter and heiress of William, lord Hervey of Kidbrooke [q. v.], but had no children.
[Authorities cited; Collins's Peerage(Brydges), iv. 149-51; Sprat's Life of Cowley.]
HERVEY, JOHN, Lord Hervey of Ickworth (1696–1743), the eldest son of John, first earl of Bristol [q. v.], by his second wife, was born on 15 Oct. 1696. He was educated at Westminster School, whence he was removed to Clare Hall, Cambridge on 20 Nov. 1713. He graduated M.A. in 1715, and in the following year visited Paris. From Paris he went to Hanover to pay his court to George I, where he ingratiated himself with Prince Frederick, of 'the blooming beauties of whose person and character' he sent a lively description to his father. Upon his return to England Hervey gave up some thoughts of the army, and spent much of his time at Ickworth, in spite of his father's remonstrances, in 'the perpetual pursuit of poetry.' He frequently visited the court of the prince and princess at Richmond, when he fell in love with Mary Lepell [see Hervey, Mary, Lady], whom he married in 1720. On the death of his half-brother Carr [see under Hervey, John, first Earl of Bristol] in November 1723 he succeeded to the courtesy title of Lord Hervey. At a by-election in April 1725 he was retuned to the House of Commons for the borough of Bury St. Edmunds, and, as a devoted follower of the prince's court, joined Pulteney in his opposition to Walpole. When, however, George II adopted Walpole as his minister Hervey changed sides, and was granted a pension of l,000l. a year. On the meeting of the new king's first parliament in January 1728 Hervey moved the address in the House of Commons (Parl. Hist. viii. 638), but shortly afterwards went with Stephen Fox to Italy, where he remained for the sake of his health some eighteen months. He returned to England in September 1729. Both Walpole and Pulteney bid for his support. Hervey finally broke with Pulteney, and was rewarded by Walpole with the office of vice-chamberlain of the household on 7 May 1730, being admitted to the privy council on the following day. Early in 1731 appeared an anonymous pamphlet entitled 'Sedition and Defamation display'd.'&c, containing a dedication 'to the patrons of the Craftsman.' in which both Pulteney and Bolingbroke were severely attacked. In answer to this Pulteney wrote 'A Proper Reply to a late Scurrilous Libel,' &c., referring to Hervey in the most offensive terms. The quarrel ended in a duel, which took place 'in the Upper St. James's Park, behind Arlington Street' (now the Green Park), on 25 Jan. 1731, when both the combatants were slightly wounded, and Pulteney would have ran Hervey through the body but for a slip of his foot, when the seconds intervened (Coxe, Memoirs of
