William Wentworth, 2nd Earl of Strafford (1722-1791)

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For the earlier Earl of Strafford of the same name (1626-1695), see William Wentworth, 2nd Earl of Strafford.
Wentworth Castle, near Barnsley in Yorkshire
Wentworth Castle, near Barnsley in Yorkshire

William Wentworth, 2nd Earl of Strafford (17 March 1722–10 March 1791), was a peer and member of the House of Lords of Great Britain.

Contents

[edit] Background

Strafford was the only son of Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford (1672-1739). His paternal great-grandfather was Sir William Wentworth of Ashby Puerorum, a younger brother of Thomas Wentworth, 1st Earl of Strafford of an earlier creation. His father was a cousin of William Wentworth, 2nd Earl of Strafford, who died childless, on whose death in 1695 he became the 3rd Baron Raby. However, the Strafford fortune, with the estate of the great Jacobean house of Wentworth Woodhouse, went to a nephew of the second Earl's by marriage.

The title of Earl of Strafford was created for the third time in 1711, for Strafford's father, and thus came to him on his father's death in 1739.[1]

[edit] Architect

Strafford added a neo-Palladian range to Wentworth Castle, his country house in Yorkshire, a project begun in 1759 and completed in 1764. As its principal designer, this gained him an entry in Colvin's Biographical Dictionary of British Architects.[2] [3][4] Strafford's friend Horace Walpole described this south front on August 2, 1770, as showing "the most perfect taste in architecture":[5]

“ If a model is sought of the most perfect taste in architecture, where grace softens dignity, and lightness attempers magnificence; where proportion removes every part from peculiar observation, and delicacy of observation recalls every part to notice; where the position is the most happy, and even the colour of the stone the most harmonious; the virtuouso should be directed to the new front of Wentworth-castle: the result of the same elegant judgement that had before distributed so many beauties over that domain, and called from wood, water, hills, prospects and buildings, a compendium of picturesque nature, improved by the chastity of art. ”

[edit] Jacobite Duke

Strafford was the second Duke of Strafford in the Jacobite Peerage of England, a title created for his father by The Old Pretender in 1722.[6] Strafford's father, the first Duke, had been a leading conspirator in the "Atterbury Plot" to restore the Stuarts of 1720-1722, and was later also a party to the Cornbury Plot of 1731-1735. The Pretender appointed him one of his 'Lords Regent' in England and commander of the Jacobite forces north of the Humber.[7]

[edit] Marriage

In 1741, Strafford married Lady Anne Campbell (born about 1715, died 1785), the second of the five daughters of John Campbell, 2nd Duke of Argyll. The two became part of a social set which included Horace Walpole, who considered the countess to be a "vast beauty" and immortalized her in a poem which was published in 1765.[8]

When Strafford was widowed in 1785, society gossip quickly linked his name with that of Lady Louisa Stuart (1757-1851), leading Lady Diana Beauclerk to remark "So Lady Louisa Stuart is going to marry her great-grandfather, is she?"[9] However, Stuart looked on Strafford merely as an elderly uncle, and not as a suitor, and he for his part did nothing to promote such an alliance.[10]

Strafford died without issue in 1791.[6]

[edit] Likenesses

Anne, Countess of Strafford, by Joshua Reynolds
Anne, Countess of Strafford, by Joshua Reynolds

Portraits of Strafford include one by Sir Joshua Reynolds which was engraved as a mezzotint by James Macardell. The copy of this in the National Portrait Gallery is erroneosly described as of 'William Wentworth, 4th Earl of Strafford (1722-1791)'.[11]

Strafford's countess was also painted by Sir Joshua Reynolds.[8]

[edit] References

  1. ^ Earl of Strafford at rotherhamweb.co.uk (accessed 5 March 2008)
  2. ^ Colvin, Howard, A Biographical Dictionary of British Architects 1600-1840 (Yale University Press, 1954, now in 4th edition, ISBN 0300125089)
  3. ^ Hewlings, Richard, Ripon's Forum Populi in Architectural History, Vol. 24 (1981), pp. 39-52 and 150-152
  4. ^ Wentworth Castle and Stainborough Park estate online at rotherhamweb.co.uk (accessed 5 March 2008)
  5. ^ Walpole, Horace, Anecdotes of painting in England, with some account of the principal artists (new edition, London, Henry G. Bohn, 1849) page 813 online at google.co.uk (accessed 5 March 2008)
  6. ^ a b De Ruvigny, Marquis, The Jacobite Peerage, Baronetage, Knightage, and Grants of Honour (Edinburgh: T.C. & C.E. Jack, 1904, new edition by Genealogical Publishing Company, 2003, ISBN 0806317167) p. 171
  7. ^ Burrows, Donald, The Cambridge Companion to Handel (Cambridge University Press, 1997, page 97 online at books.google.co.uk (accessed 5 March 2008)
  8. ^ a b Anne, Countess of Strafford (c. 1715-1785) online at artsmia.org (accessed 5 March 2008)
  9. ^ Memoirs of the Argylls in the Journal of Lady Mary Coke, vol. 1, p. xlix
  10. ^ Graham, Harry, [Jocelyn Henry C. Graham], A Group of Scottish Women (New York, Duffield & Co., 1908) Chapter XVIII online at Lady Louisa Stuart (1757 - 1851) at electricscotland.com (accessed 29 February 2008)
  11. ^ William Wentworth, 4th Earl of Strafford (1722-1791) at npg.org.uk (accessed 1 March 2008)
Peerage of England
Preceded by
Thomas Wentworth		 Earl of Strafford
1739–1791		 Succeeded by
Frederick Wentworth