Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 50.djvu/104

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Warr); Owen's Epigrams, 1st ser. ii. 20, 3rd ser. ii. 37; Cal. State Papers, Dom. 1590–1677; Hist. MSS. Comm. especially 4th Rep. App. pp. 276–317, and 7th Rep. App. pp. 249–60, being calendars of the papers at Knole, mostly those of the Cranfield family.]

H. E. D. B.

SACKVILLE, GEORGE, first Viscount Sackville (1716–1785). [See Germain, George Sackville.]

SACKVILLE, JOHN FREDERICK, third Duke of Dorset (1745–1799), only son of Lord John Philip Sackville, M.P., by Frances, daughter of John, earl of Gower, and grandson of Lionel Cranfield Sackville, first duke of Dorset [q. v.], was born on 24 March 1745, and educated at Westminster School, with which he kept up a connection in later life. As ‘Mr. Sackville’ he was elected member for Kent at the general election of 1768 (Parliamentary Returns), but vacated his seat and was called to the House of Lords on the death of his uncle Charles, second duke of Dorset [q. v.] (5 Jan. 1769), when he succeeded to the title and estates. He was sworn of the privy council on being appointed captain of the yeomen of the guard on 11 Feb. 1782, which post at court he resigned on 3 April 1783, and from 26 Dec. 1783 to 8 Aug. 1789 he filled the responsible position of ambassador-extraordinary and plenipotentiary to the court of France. He quitted that country at the beginning of the revolution. He received the Garter on 9 April 1788, and was lord steward of the royal household 7 Oct. 1789 till he resigned on 20 Feb. 1799. He was also lord lieutenant of Kent from 27 Jan. 1769 till 13 June 1797, and colonel of the West Kent militia from 13 April 1778 till his death, being granted the rank of colonel in the army on 2 July 1779. He was appointed one of the trustees under the will of Dr. Busby on 11 May 1797 (Phillimore, Alumni Westmonasterienses); was elected a governor of the Charterhouse on 4 March 1796, and was high steward of Stratford-upon-Avon for many years. The duke died in his fifty-fifth year at his seat at Knole, Kent, on 19 July 1799, and was buried in the family vault at Withyham, Sussex. Dorset's manners were soft, quiet, ingratiating, and formed for a court, free from affectation, but not deficient in dignity. He possessed good sense, matured by knowledge of the world (Wraxall, Memoirs). A member of the Hambledon Club and a patron of cricket, he was one of the committee by whom the original laws of the Marylebone Club were drawn up. On 4 Jan. 1790 he married Arabella Diana, daughter of Sir Charles Cope, bart., of Brewerne, Oxfordshire; and he left two daughters and a son, George John Frederick, who, dying from a fall in the hunting field in 1815, was succeeded as fifth and last duke by his cousin, Charles Sackville Germain (1767–1843), son of Lord George Sackville Germain [q. v.] The second daughter, Elizabeth (d. 1870), married, in June 1813, George John West, fifth earl De la Warr, who assumed in 1843 the additional surname and arms of Sackville. The countess was in April 1864 created Baroness Buckhurst, and, dying on 9 Jan. 1870, left, with other issue, the present Baron Sackville.

[Doyle's Official Baronage; Haydn's Book of Dignities, ed. Ockerby; Burke's Peerage, s.v. De la Warr and Sackville.]

W. R. W.


SACKVILLE, LIONEL CRANFIELD, first Duke of Dorset (1688–1765), born on 18 Jan. 1688, the only son of Charles, sixth earl of Dorset [q. v.], by his second wife, Lady Mary Compton, younger daughter of James, third earl of Northampton, and sister of Spencer, earl of Wilmington, was educated at Westminster School. In April 1706 he accompanied Charles Montagu, earl of Halifax, on his special mission to Hanover for the purpose of transmitting to the elector the acts which had been passed in the interests of his family. He succeeded his father as seventh Earl of Dorset and second Earl of Middlesex on 29 Jan. 1706, and took his seat in the House of Lords on 19 Jan. 1708 (Journals of the House of Lords, xviii. 430). In December 1708 he was appointed constable of Dover Castle and lord warden of the Cinque ports, posts from which he was removed in June 1713. He is said to have written the whig address from the county of Kent, which was presented to the queen on 30 July 1710 (Annals of Queen Anne, ix. 177–9), and on 15 June 1714 he protested against the Schism Act (Rogers, Complete Collection of the Protests of the Lords, 1875, i. 218–21). On Anne's death he was sent by the regency as envoy-extraordinary to Hanover to notify that fact to George I.

He was appointed groom of the stole and first lord of the bedchamber on 18 Sept. 1714, and constable of Dover Castle and lord warden of the Cinque ports on 18 Oct. On the 16th of the same month he was elected a knight of the Garter, being installed on 9 Dec. following. He assisted at the coronation of George I on 20 Oct., as bearer of the sceptre with the cross, and on 16 Nov. 1714 was sworn a member of the privy council. In April 1716 he supported the Septennial Bill in the House of Lords, and is said to