Topham Beauclerk

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Topham Beauclerk (pronounced 'Bo-Clare') (22 December 1739 - 11 March 1780) was the only son of Lord Sidney Beauclerk and friend of Dr. Johnson.

Beauclerk was christened on 19 January 1740 in St James', Westminster and attended Trinity College, Oxford.

On 12 March 1768, he married Diana, the daughter of Charles Spencer, 3rd Duke of Marlborough and they had four children together:

Anne Beauclerk (born c. 1764)
Elisabeth Beauclerk (20 August 1766 - 25 March 1793)
Mary Day Beauclerk, twin of Elisabeth (20 August 1766 - 23 July 1851)
Charles George Beauclerk (20 January 1774 - 25 December 1846)

Topham Beauclerk entertained Dr. Johnson at his home in Old Windsor for a number of weeks. He appears several times in Boswell's Life of Johnson. As Bennet Langton records: 'His affection for Topham Beauclerk was so great, that when Beauclerk was labouring under that severe illness which at last occasioned his death, Johnson said, (with a voice faultering with emotion,) "Sir, I would walk to the extent of the diameter of the earth to save Beauclerk"' (Boswell 1072).

Beauclerk died at his house in Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury on 11 March 1780. Lady Diana later sold the house to retire in modesty to Richmond. The house at Great Russell Street, which was demolished in 1788, housed a library designed by renowned architect Robert Adam.