1809, i. 363–5; Luttrell's Brief Hist. Relation, i. 488, ii. 165, 199, 230, 318, 369, iii. 146, 150, 157, 225, 467, iv. 20, 305, 320, v. 455; Burnet's Own Time, 1857, i. 185, 479, 506; Boyer's William III, 1703, pp. 22, 130, 159, 161, 200, 408, 415; Boyer's Queen Anne, 1735, pp. 200, 394, 450, 461; Mulgrave's Account of the Revolution; Evelyn's Diary, ii. 57; Rapin and Tindal's Hist. of England, xvii. 286; Dalrymple's Memoirs of Great Britain, 1790, bk. v. and appendix containing packet of letters from Mary of Modena, Mordaunt, Danby, Halifax, Compton, and others to William, prince of Orange, in which reference is made to Zuylestein as the prince's emissary; Corresp. of Henry Hyde, earl of Clarendon, 1828, i. 165, ii. 178–182, 226, 229; Clarke's James II, 1816, ii. 262, 266; Despatches of Marlborough, ed. Murray, i. 392, 445; Dalton's English Army Lists, iv. 217; Coxe's Marlborough, iii. 153; Wolseley's Life of Marlborough, i. 383; Parnell's War in Spain, pp. 270, 276–7; Mackintosh's Hist. of the Revolution, 1834, pp. 392, 411, 415, 544; Macaulay's History, 1883, i. 455, 508, 611, 667, ii. 240; Mazure's Hist. de la Révolution, 1825, iii. 263; Ralph's Hist. of England, pp. 999, 1066; Ranke's Hist. of England, iv. 398; Wilson's James II and Duke of Berwick, pp. 71–2; Noble's Contin. of Granger, iii. 442; Plumptre's Life of Ken, 1888, i. 55, 136, 144, 145, ii. 21, 23, 270; Strickland's Queens of England, vi. 199, 200, 226, 229, 285, vii. 73–4, 185, 302–3, 331; Klopp's Fall des Hauses Stuart, 1870, iii. 379, iv. 64, 67, 71; Foxcroft's Life of Halifax, 1898, i. 484, ii. 38–42; Hist. MSS. Comm. 5th Rep. App. p. 316, 8th Rep. App. pp. 17, 36–7, 11th Rep. App. iv. 64, 67, 71; Official Return of Members of Parliament, Index, s.v. ‘Yulestein.’]
ZUYLESTEIN or ZULESTEIN, WILLIAM HENRY [Nassau de], fourth Earl of Rochford (1717–1781), eldest son of Frederick Nassau de Zuylestein, third earl, by Bessy Savage, was born at St. Osyth Priory, Essex, on 17 Sept. 1717. His mother, who was the illegitimate daughter and heiress of Richard Savage, fourth earl Rivers [q. v.], by Elizabeth Colleton or Culleton, died on 23 June 1746, being then the widow of the Rev. Philip Carter (Gent. Mag. 1746, pp. 328; Noble, Continuation of Granger, iii. 442). After education at Westminster school he was appointed a lord of the bedchamber in 1738 with a salary of 1,000l. a year. In 1741 he inherited property from his uncle, Henry de Zuylestein, who died, unmarried, at Easton in the April of this year. Inheriting also strong whig views, he moved in the most influential society in London, and was in 1749 elected a member of White's. In 1748 he was nominated vice-admiral of Essex, and in the following year was sent as envoy extraordinary and plenipotentiary to the king of Sardinia. While at Turin he made the Italian tour, ‘observed the disposition of the several Italian courts,’ and spent some time at Rome in the spring of 1753. Next year he obtained permission to return to England and landed at Dover on 26 April. On 5 Sept. 1754 he embarked again at Harwich on his return, but a few months later, upon the Earl of Albemarle dying suddenly in Paris, Rochford was recalled, and accomplished the journey from Turin to Berkeley Square in what was thought the quick time of fifteen days (February 1755). On 2 March, upon his presenting himself at court, he was appointed groom of the stole and first lord of the bedchamber. As groom of the stole at the time of George II's death, he was entitled to the furniture of the room in which the king died, and a bed-quilt of which he became possessed in this manner long did duty as an altar-cloth in St. Osyth's church.
On 11 March 1755 he was sworn of the privy council, and on 26 April he was one of the lords justices upon the occasion of the king's visit to Hanover. On 15 Aug. in this year Walpole mentions that he dined with Grafton and Rochford at Garrick's. He was constituted lord lieutenant of Essex on 6 April 1756, and on George III's accession was continued in that post and on the list of privy councillors, and granted, upon his resignation of his bedchamber appointment, an Irish pension of 2,000l. a year (December 1760). On 8 June 1763 he was named ambassador-extraordinary to the court of Spain, and held that appointment for three years. At Madrid he witnessed the changes that ensued upon the fall of Richard Wall [q. v.], and he soon arrived at a thorough understanding of Spanish politics. The removal of a man so difficult to replace was strongly deprecated by Grenville and others. His personal extravagance was very great, and it was said that in order to get away from Madrid he had to pawn his plate and jewels for 6,000l. (Morning Herald, 6 Oct. 1781). One of his extravagances was a superb china dinner service, with his coat of arms in the centre. His motto was ‘Spes durat avorum,’ but the painter wrote ‘Spes durat amorum,’ and the substitution was held to be more than justified by the earl's peculiarities. On 1 July 1766 he was appointed British ambassador at Paris. It was rumoured that he had received instructions of a secret character from Shelburne as to the line he was to take in regard to the French designs upon Corsica, and that he suffered a good deal owing to the vacillation of the English cabinet on this subject.
