Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 63.djvu/364

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tain that Yorke's death was the consequence of the extreme nervous tension and mental suffering which he had undergone, and rumour gave the event a more tragic colouring. It was asserted, and came to be widely believed, that, goaded to frenzy by the resentment with which his defection was regarded by his party, the chancellor had committed suicide; and, as there was no post-mortem or other equivalent autopsy of the corpse, the lugubrious surmise remained alike uncorroborated and unrefuted.

Yorke's remains were interred in the family vault adjoining the church at Wimpole. Within the church is his monument, with medallion portrait, by Scheemakers. An engraving from the medallion is frontispiece to the ‘Athenian Letters’ (ed. 1798, vol. ii.) Another engraving is in the ‘European Magazine’ (1803, ii. 162–3). His portrait by Allan Ramsay belongs to the Earl of Hardwicke (Cat. Second Loan Exhib. No. 488). His epitaph is in Additional MS. 5848, p. 629.

Yorke married twice: first, on 19 May 1755, Catharina (d. 10 July 1750), daughter of William Freman of Aspeden, Hertfordshire; secondly, on 30 Dec. 1762, Agneta, daughter of Henry Johnson of Great Berkhampstead, Hertfordshire. He had issue by both wives: by the first, a son Philip (1757–1834) [q. v.], who eventually succeeded his uncle Philip as third Earl of Hardwicke; by the second, two sons, Charles Philip Yorke [q. v.] and Joseph Sydney Yorke [q. v.]

Physically Yorke was in every respect a contrast to his father, being fat, coarse-featured, plethoric, and a gourmand; intellectually he was his father's heir, and had he but been endowed with an equal measure of firmness might well have achieved an equal renown. Yorke was F.R.S. and a trustee of the Warburtonian lecture and of the British Museum. He was an Italian scholar, and trifled with the muses. Three of his essays in verse are extant—viz. 1. ‘Ode to the Hon. Miss Yorke [afterwards Lady Anson] on her copying a Portrait of Dante by Clovio.’ 2. Lines ‘To a Lady with a Present of Pope's Works.’ 3. ‘Stanzas in the Manner of Waller, occasioned by a Receipt to make Ink, given to the Author by a Lady’ (see Gent. Mag. 1770, pp. 38–9, and Ann. Reg. 1770, ii. 201–205). The lines beginning ‘Stript to the naked soul, escaped from clay,’ ascribed to him by Lord Campbell (Chancellors, ed. 1857, vii. 113), were really written by Pope (see Warburton, Works, ed. Hurd, xiii. 362–3; and cf. Bolton, Robert, (1697–1763)). Some of Yorke's letters are printed in Warburton's ‘Works’ (ed. Hurd, xiii. 495–510, xiv. 124–53); one to Dr. Birch is in ‘Original Papers’ (1765); and one to Conyers Middleton in Additional MS. 72457, f. 180; others to various friends are in Additional MSS. 9828 ff. 58–63, 19347 ff. 270, 335, 341, and the ‘Pelham Papers,’ Additional MSS. 32724–33072. (As to the disastrous fire at his chambers, see Somers or Sommers, John, Lord Somers, ad fin.)

[Collins's Peerage, ed. Brydges, iv. 494; Grad. Cant.; Lincoln's Inn Records; Chamberlayne's Magnæ Brit. Notit. 1748 ii. 286, 1755, ii. 257; Court and City Reg. 1754, p. 99; Official Return of Members of Parliament; Parl. Hist. vols. xiv–xv.; Commons' Journals, ix. 342; Walpole's Memoirs (George II, ed. Holland; George III, ed. Le Marchant and Russell Barker); Walpole's Letters, ed. Cunningham; Walpole's Royal and Noble Authors, ed. Park; Warburton's Works, ed. Hurd, i. 9, 42–60, xiii. 31, 107–18, 132, 204, 262, 291–8, 344, 360–98, 432, xiv. 232–6; Changes in the Ministry, 1765–7 (Royal Hist. Soc., Camden Ser.); Addit. MSS. 5832 f. 89, 22131 f. 22, 22132 ff. 4 et seq.; Grenville Papers, ed. Smith; Grafton's Autobiography, ed. Anson; Chatham's Corresp. ed. Taylor and Pringle; Letters of Junius, No. xlix.; Albemarle's Memoirs of Rockingham; Memorials and Correspondence of Charles James Fox, ed. Lord John Russell, i. 15; Howell's State Trials, xix. 927, 1027, 1057, 1303; Hist. MSS. Comm. 10th Rep. App. i. 323, 354, 378, 391–2, 416–18, 11th Rep. App. iv. 365, 400, 12th Rep. App. v. 313–14, 14th Rep. App. iv. 524, x. 22, 552–5, 15th Rep. App. vi. 205; Nichols's Lit. Anecd., and Illustr.; Wraxall's Memoirs, ed. Wheatley; Cradock's Memoirs, i. 92, iv. 252; Nicholls's Recollections and Reflections; Gent. Mag. 1755 p. 236, 1762 p. 600; Scots Mag. 1770, pp. 48–9, 53–4; Ann. Reg. 1770 pp. 69, 186, 1834 p. 219; Law Mag. xxx. 49; Cooksey's Essay on Lord Somers, &c.; Harris's Life of Lord-Chancellor Hardwicke; Foss's Lives of the Judges; Notes and Queries, 1st ser. ii. 7, iii. 43, 72, vii. 113; Clutterbuck's Hertfordshire, i. 212, iii. 154, 158, 347; Cussans's Hertfordshire (Edwinstree), i. 44, 96; Registers of St. George's, Hanover Square (Harl. Soc.); Adolphus's History of the Reign of George III; Parkes's History of the Court of Chancery, p. 342; Trevelyan's Early History of Charles James Fox.]

J. M. R.

YORKE, Sir CHARLES (1790–1880), field-marshal, born 7 Dec. 1790, was the son of Colonel John Yorke, deputy-lieutenant of the Tower from 1795 till his death, 26 Jan. 1826, by Juliana, daughter of John Dodd of Swallowfield, Berkshire.

He was commissioned as ensign in the 35th foot on 22 Jan. 1807, became lieutenant on 18 Feb. 1808, and on the 25th exchanged to the 52nd foot. He served with that distinguished regiment throughout the Penin-