porated until 1694. Halifax frequently attended the upper house during the sessions of 1693–4; in March 1693 he voted against the renewal of the censorship of the press, and signed a protest to that effect (Rogers, Protests of the Lords, i. 110), and in March 1694 he strongly opposed an opposition bill for the regulation of trials in cases of treason. He appeared in the house as late as March 1695, but for some time previous to this his health had begun to fail, and some obvious precautions against the dangers of his malady were neglected. With great serenity, after receiving the sacrament from Dr. Birch, he died at Halifax House at six P.M. on 5 April 1695 (see Hatton Corresp. ii. 215–216). He was buried in Westminster Abbey, where in the north ambulatory of Henry VII's chapel a monument supports his bust (it is engraved in Chester, Westminster Abbey Regist. p. 234).
Savile married, first, on 29 Dec. 1656 at St. Giles's-in-the-Fields, Dorothy, daughter of Henry Spencer, first earl of Sunderland by his wife, the famous ‘Sacharissa.’ She died on the 16th, and was buried at Thornhill on 31 Dec. 1670. By her he had four children: (1), Henry, lord Eland, born February 1660, married in 1684 Esther, daughter of Charles de la Tour, marquis de Gouvernet, a rich Huguenot noble, and died in 1688; to him in 1684 Otway dedicated his ‘Atheist;’ (2) Anne, born in 1663, who married in 1682 John, lord Vaughan, son of the Earl of Carbery; (3) William [see below]; (4) George, born in 1667, and educated at Geneva, volunteered against the Turks, was dangerously wounded during an assault upon Buda on 13 July 1686 (see London Gazette, 2158), and died in 1688–9. After the loss of his two sons in this year Halifax received a touching letter of condolence from Rachel, lady Russell (Life, ed. 1819, p. 102). Halifax married, secondly, in November 1672, Gertrude (d. 1727), youngest daughter of the Hon. William Pierrepoint of Thoresby, by whom he had one child, Elizabeth, married in March 1692 to Philip Stanhope, third earl of Chesterfield. By a mistress named Carey, who is said to have been a schoolmistress, Savile had a son, Henry Carey [q. v.], the poet, the father of George Saville Carey [q. v.], and great-grandfather of the actor, Edmund Kean.
William Savile, second Marquis of Halifax (1665–1700), born in 1665, was educated at Geneva and Oxford, where he matriculated M.A. from Christ Church on 5 Dec. 1681; he sat for Newark from 1689 to 1695, and defended his father with spirit from the attacks in the House of Commons. From 1688 until his father's death he was known as Lord Eland:
Eland whose pen as nimbly glides
As his good father changes sides.
He married, first, in 1687, Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Samuel Grimston, by whom he left Anne, wife of Charles, third earl of Ailesbury; secondly, on 2 April 1695, Lady Mary Finch (daughter of the second earl of Nottingham), by whom he left Dorothy (d 20 Dec. 1717), married to Richard Boyle, earl of Burlington [q. v.] The second marquis died without male issue at Acton on 31 Aug. 1700 (cf. Lysons, Environs, ii. 5), and was buried at St. Albans. His widow remarried John Kerr, sixth duke of Roxburghe, and died on 19 Sept. 1718. The marquisate of Halifax thus became extinct, but on the second marquis's death Charles Montagu [q. v.] was almost immediately created Baron Halifax (4 Dec. 1700). As in the case of the earldom of Rochester, the very short interval between the extinction of one peerage and the creation of another of similar title in favour of a member of a different family is apt to cause confusion. The Savile baronetcy reverted to the descendants of Sir George, first baronet, and died out with Sir George Savile (1726–1784) [q. v.]
Macaulay saw in Halifax an almost ideal adviser for a constitutional monarch. At any rate, he was a statesman who combined independence of judgment and a respectable patriotism with eloquence, culture, and an intellect of exceptional versatility and power. His temper, always on the side of moderation, disgusted him with the inchoate party system, the factions of which he compared to freebooters who hang out false colours, whose pretence is the public good, but whose real business is plunder. Against Halifax no charge of pecuniary corruption was ever breathed. For renegades, whether political or religious, he felt unmeasured scorn. Holding aloof from party prejudice and emancipated from vulgar ambition, he generally guided his political course with a regard to the best interests of his country; but his temperament disqualified him at the great crisis of the revolution for the practical work of politics. Neutrality was then out of place, and fitted a speculative philosopher rather than an active politician.
His finely balanced intellect appears to best advantage in his writings. Perspicuity, vivacity, and humour are there alike conspicuous; and the union of a philosophic temper with practical sagacity impart to them a ‘Baconian flavour.’ ‘Who among his contemporaries—how few among his successors—have grasped his central principle
