Henry Brydges, 2nd Duke of Chandos

Henry Brydges aged about five, pictured in 1713 with his father James Brydges, his elder brother John and either his mother Mary (died 1712) or his stepmother Cassandra.^[1]

Henry Brydges, 2nd Duke of Chandos, KB (17 January 1708 – 28 November 1771), known from 1727 to 1744 by his courtesy title Marquess of Carnarvon, was the second son of James Brydges, 1st Duke of Chandos PC and his first wife Mary Lake. He was the Member of Parliament for Hereford from 1727 to 1734 and for Steyning between 1734 and 1741.

He was described by King George II as "a hot headed, passionate, half-witted coxcomb."^[2]

Financial problems

Henry Brydges was educated at Westminster School and St John's College, Cambridge.^[3] Henry's elder brother died without male issue in 1727 and Henry became heir to the dukedom. When his father died on 9 August 1744, the estate was heavily burdened by debt, the family having lost money in the South Sea Bubble. A decision was made to demolish the family seat, Cannons. In 1747 a twelve-day demolition sale saw both the contents and the very structure of the house itself sold piecemeal.

Marriages and children

On 21 December 1728 he married Lady Mary Bruce (1710–1738), daughter of Charles Bruce, 4th Earl of Elgin and Lady Anne Saville. They had two children who survived childhood, Lady Caroline Brydges (1729–1789) and James Brydges, 3rd Duke of Chandos (1731–1789) who were painted by Bartholomew Dandridge in 1738 ^[5]

The Duke's second marriage was unconventional. In 1744 he married Anne Wells, a former chambermaid from Newbury in Berkshire. They had met a few years earlier in circumstances described by a witness as follows:

The Duke of Chandos and a companion dined at the Pelican, Newbury, on the way to London. A stir in the Inn yard led to their being told that a man was going to sell his wife, and they are leading her up with a halter around her neck. They went to see. The Duke was smitten with her beauty and patient acquiescence in a process which would (as then supposed) free her from a harsh and ill-conditioned husband. He bought her, and subsequently married her (at Keith's Chapel) Christmas Day, 1744.^[6]

Anne died in 1759 without male issue and Brydges married for a third time in 1767 to Elizabeth Major (1731–1813), daughter of Sir John Major, 1st Baronet.

Career and titles

From 1729 to 1735 Brydges was Master of the Horse to Frederick, Prince of Wales, and in 1732 was invested as a Knight, Order of the Bath. On the death of his father as well as succeeding to the Dukedom, he also became 2nd Marquess of Carnarvon, 2nd Earl of Carnarvon, 5th Baronet Brydges of Wilton, 10th Baron Chandos and 2nd Viscount Wilton.^[2]

References