Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Jermyn, Henry (1636-1708)
JERMYN, HENRY, first Baron Dover (1636–1708), born in 1636, was second son of Sir Thomas Jermyn of Rushbrooke, Suffolk, by Rebecca, who afterwards remarried Viscount Brouncker, and hence younger brother of Thomas, second Baron Jermyn, and a nephew of Henry, first earl of St. Albans [q. v.] He passed on to the continent with his relative, and may have been the ‘younger Mr. Jarmin’ mentioned by Hyde as being ill of the small-pox at St. Germains in August 1652. He obtained a post in the household of the Duke of York, and accompanied his master to Bruges in 1656 and to Holland in 1657 (Clarke, Life of James II, i. 275, 291). His favour with the widowed Princess of Orange, Mary, daughter of Charles I, obliged Charles II to intervene, and gave rise to the rumour of a private marriage (Green, Lives of the Princesses of England, vi. 261; Pepys, Diary, 21 Dec. 1660).
At the Restoration he became master of the horse to the Duke of York, and was allowed to ride at the coronation in the company of the Duke of Albemarle, a distinction of which Clarendon did not approve. He at once became a prominent figure at the court, was adopted by his uncle, and shared his uncle's reputation for gaming and debauchery. He was for a time unduly intimate with Lady Castlemaine, and afterwards fell in love with Lady Shrewsbury. The last intrigue aroused the anger of Colonel Thomas Howard, and a duel followed (August 1662) in St. James's Fields, Pall Mall, in which Rawlings, one of the seconds, was killed, and Jermyn was seriously wounded. On his recovery he made unsuccessful advances to Anthony Hamilton's sister. In 1665 Jermyn, with others, had a large grant of overflowed lands in Ireland, and on 20 Jan. 1666 he was made captain in a new company, known as the select militia or Duke of Richmond's horse.
In 1667 Jermyn renewed his acquaintance with Lady Castlemaine. ‘The king,’ wrote Pepys (29 July 1667), ‘is mad at her entertaining Jermyn.’ Accordingly he left town, and remained away above half a year, although Grammont had obtained permission for him to return in a fortnight. He was finally recalled to London by the reports of Miss Jennings's beauty, and though, as Hamilton notes (Grammont, p. 240), his residence in the country had made his manners somewhat rusty, he still carried all before him, but Miss Jennings soon tired of his company. About this time Jermyn, for a bet of 500l., rode a horse for twenty miles along a road in less than an hour, with ill effects on his health. In October 1671 he entertained Evelyn at Cheveley, his seat near Newmarket, during the races. But for the king's interposition he would have fought a duel with Lord Mulgrave in 1673, in consequence of a trifling quarrel.
Jermyn was a Roman catholic, and on the accession of James II began to take part in public affairs. On 13 May 1685 he was raised to the peerage as Lord Dover; on 17 Aug. 1686 he was sworn of the privy council, and became lord-lieutenant of Cambridgeshire. He was now one of the catholic cabal at James's court, following Castlemaine's leadership (cf. Clarke, James II, ii. 77; Reresby, Memoirs, ed. 1875, p. 353). Clarendon, writing to Rochester (2 Oct. 1686), mentioned a rumour of his appointment to the lord-lieutenancy of Ireland, and it seems that Tyrconnel expected that either himself or Dover would take Clarendon's place before Christmas. Although Dover advised James against Tyrconnel's proposal to repeal the Act of Settlement in Ireland, he did not lose James's good will. Dr. Watson was made bishop of St. Davids on 27 June 1687 by his influence, and after Rochester's fall he became a commissioner for the treasury (4 Jan. 1686–7). Etherege, then at Ratisbon, an old gambling companion, wrote a letter of congratulation on the appointment, and rallied him on his gallantries (18 Dec. 1687). In the same year he was one of those dispensed from taking oaths of office (Bramston, Autobiography, Camd. Soc., p. 283), and he acted as chamberlain when the Earl of Mulgrave was in disgrace. At the revolution Dover adhered to James, who showed his confidence by sending him to Portsmouth with the Prince of Wales in November 1688. Dartmouth was ordered to prepare a yacht for their conveyance into France, and to ‘act under Dover's directions’ (cf. Clarke, James II, ii. 229; Reresby, p. 421; Hist. MSS. Comm. 11th Rep. App. pt. v. pp. 215, 220, 223–5, 273–7). This, however, Dartmouth refused to do. Dover followed James into France, his country seat was attacked by a protestant mob, he was included in the Act of Attainder of 20 June 1689, and ordered to give himself up by a certain day (ib. 12th Rep. App. pt. vi. pp. 228 et seq.) On 9 July 1689 he was created by James Baron Jermyn of Raystowne, Baron of Ipswich, Viscount Cheveley, and Earl of Dover. Sailing into Ireland in November 1689 with the Marquis of Albeville in a 36-gun ship, he had a narrow escape of being captured off Scilly. He had been made a commissioner of the treasury of Ireland in July, and James intended sending him again into France to procure supplies, but Jermyn, taking some offence, entered into communications with Kirke, 19 June 1690. At the battle of the Boyne, however, he commanded his troop (cf. George Story, A True and Impartial History, p. 97). Subsequently (August 1690) he submitted to William, who told him he had nothing to fear. For a time he retired to Flanders. In November 1690 his pardon was passing the great seal, but according to Luttrell in March 1690–1 he was still outlawed, and his tenants ordered to pay their rents into the exchequer. Evelyn, who visited him on 7 Nov. 1692, noted that Dover had then made his peace with William.
The rest of his life was passed quietly either in London, where he had a house in Albemarle Buildings, near St. James's Park, or at Cheveley, where St.-Evremond visited him and was much pleased by his entertainment. On 1 April 1703 he succeeded his brother as third Baron Jermyn of St. Edmundsbury. He died at Cheveley on 6 April 1708, and his body was taken to Bruges and buried in the Carmelite friary there. Hamilton, who calls him ‘le petit Jermyn,’ writes of him ‘Il avoit la tête grosse et les jambes menues.’ He adds that although Dover was affected he was a gallant gentleman; his desperate duel and his riding feat certainly show that whatever may be said of his morals he was not devoid of courage. Two portraits are at Rushbrooke Park—one of himself alone, and the other in a group with his wife and a daughter, who died young. He married ‘une peque provinciale,’ Judith, daughter of Sir Edmund Poley, of Badley, Suffolk (Le Neve, Knights, Harl. Soc. p. 121). Dodd says that she was ‘a lady of a singular good character’ (Church Hist. iii. 241). He left no issue, and the peerage in consequence became extinct. Most of his property passed to his grandnephew, Sir Jermyn Davers, who had married his niece.
[Authorities quoted; art. James II; Macaulay's Hist.; Luttrell's Brief Relation; Cal. of State Papers, Dom.; Etherege's Letter-Book (Brit. Mus. Add. MS. 11513); G. E. C.'s Peerage; Macpherson's Orig. Papers, i. 309; Davy's Suffolk Collections (Brit. Mus. Add. MS. 19137); Hamilton's Memoirs of the Comte de Grammont, ed. 1793, and notes to Vizetelly's edit.; St.-Evremond's Works, ed. 1728, ii. 223; D'Alton's King James's Irish Army List; Pepys's Diary; Evelyn's Diary; Savile Corresp. (Camd. Soc.), pp. 10, 15, 271, 291; Hyde Corresp. ed. Singer, ii. 10, 25; Life of Clarendon, ed. 1857, i. 456; Letters addressed to Sir Joseph Williamson (Camd. Soc.), pp. 21, 41; Cartwright's Diary (Camd. Soc.), p. 7; Ellis's Ellis Corresp. ed. 1829, i. 56, 62, 79, 219, 342, ii. 187, 340; Clarke's Life of James II.]