Topham Beauclerk

From Justapedia, unleashing the power of collective wisdom
Jump to navigation Jump to search
Topham Beauclerk
Half-length portrait of a young man wearing a blue coat
Topham Beauclek, painted in pastels in 1756 by Francis Cotes[1]
Born(1739-12-22)22 December 1739
Pall Mall, London[2]
Died11 March 1780(1780-03-11) (aged 40)
Great Russell Street, London
NationalityBritish
Alma materTrinity College, Oxford
SpouseLady Diana Beauclerk
Children
Parents

Topham Beauclerk (/boʊˈklɛər/ boh-KLAIR; 22 December 1739 – 11 March 1780) was a celebrated wit and a friend of Dr Johnson and Horace Walpole.

Life

Topham Beauclerk was born on 22 December 1739, the only son of Lord Sidney Beauclerk and a great-grandson of King Charles II. He was christened on 19 January 1740 in St James's Church, Piccadilly, in Westminster.[3] In 1744, Sidney Beauclerk died. The four-year-old Topham, and his widowed mother, Mary Beauclerk, moved to Upper Brook Street in London and lived there until 1753.[4]

Between 1753 and 1757, Topham Beauclerk probably attended Eton College (this is not completely certain as only his surname, Beauclerk, is noted in the college's register). It seems he did not live in the school as a boarder, but in the family home in nearby Windsor.[5] In November 1757 he matriculated at Trinity College, Oxford, which had been attended by his father. His date of leaving is unknown, but he was still there in 1759, when he first met Samuel Johnson. Like most of his social class, he did not graduate.[1]

In 1763 he was in Italy with John Fitzpatrick. In 1774 he lived in Muswell Hill, north London.

On 12 March 1768 he married Diana (1734-1808), former Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Charlotte. She was born into the Spencer family as the daughter of Charles Spencer, 3rd Duke of Marlborough and the Honourable Elizabeth Trevor. Diana had married in 1757 as her first husband Frederick St John, 2nd Viscount Bolingbroke. This marriage, which gave her two sons, was unhappy and her husband was notoriously unfaithful. In February 1768 he petitioned for divorce on grounds of adultery ("criminal conversation"). The petition required an act of parliament, which was passed the next month. Soon thereafter she married Beauclerk.

They had four children together:

From 1772 to 1776 he lived at 3 Adelphi Terrace.[7] Beauclerk died at his house in Great Russell Street, Bloomsbury on 11 March 1780. Lady Diana later sold the house to retire in reduced circumstances to Richmond.

The house at Great Russell Street, which was partly demolished in 1788, housed a library designed by Robert Adam. At the time of his death, Beauclerk had amassed a collection of around 30,000 books, although these were kept at his house in Muswell Hill[8] The books were sold by auction in 1781.[9]

Friendships and anecdotes

A plaque at Great Russel Street, London, commemorating Topham Beauclerk and Lady Diana Beauclerk, erected in 1901 by the Duke of Bedford[10]

Topham Beauclerk entertained Dr Johnson at his home in Old Windsor for a number of weeks. He appears several times in James Boswell's Life of Samuel 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 [sic] with emotion), 'Sir, I would walk to the extent of the diameter of the earth to save Beauclerk'." (Boswell 1672). The artist Joseph Farington records Horace Walpole as making the following remarks regarding Beauclerk:

Lord Orford mentioned many particulars relative to the late Mr. Topham Beauclerc. He said He was the worst tempered man He ever knew. Lady Di passed a most miserable life with him. Lord O, out of regard to her invited them occasionally to pass a few days at Strawberry Hill. They slept in separate beds. Beauclerc was remarkably filthy in his person which generated vermin. He took Laudanum regularly in vast quantities. He seldom rose before one or two o'clock. His principal delight was in disputing on subjects that occurred, this He did accutely. Before He died He asked pardon of Lady Di, for his ill usage of her. He had one son and two daughters by Lady Di. One married Lord Herbert, the second went abroad with her Brother, Lord Bolingbroke [i.e. George St John, 3rd Viscount Bolingbroke].

References

  1. ^ a b Noy (2016), pp.15-16
  2. ^ Noy (2016), p.2
  3. ^ The Third Register Book of the Parish of St James in the Liberty of Westminster For Births & Baptisms. 1723-1741. 19 January 1739.
  4. ^ Noy (2016), p.11
  5. ^ Noy (2016), p.14
  6. ^ "BEAUCLERK, Charles George (1774-1845), of South Lodge, St. Leonards, nr. Horsham, Suss. | History of Parliament Online". www.historyofparliamentonline.org. Retrieved 27 May 2018.
  7. ^ 'Adelphi Terrace', in Survey of London: Volume 18, St Martin-in-The-Fields II: the Strand, ed. G H Gater and E P Wheeler (London, 1937), pp. 103-108. British History Online http://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vol18/pt2/pp103-108 [accessed 16 October 2017].
  8. ^ Fletcher, William Younger (2020). English Book Collectors. [S.l.]: OUTLOOK VERLAG. p. 167. ISBN 3-7527419909043-7285-0. OCLC 1190826507. {{cite book}}: Check |isbn= value: length (help)
  9. ^ Beauclerk, Topham; Pre-1801 Imprint Collection (Library of Congress) (1781). Bibliotheca Beauclerkiana. A catalogue of the ... library of the late Honourable Topham Beauclerk, F.R.S., deceased; comprehending an excellent choice of books, to the number of upwards of thirty thousand volumes ... which will be sold by auction ... by Mr. Paterson ... April 9, 1781, and the forty-nine following days (Good-Friday excepted). London. OCLC 7108160.
  10. ^ Noy (2016), p.252

Bibliography

  • Adamson, Donald and Beauclerk Dewar, Peter, The House of Nell Gwyn. The Fortunes of the Beauclerk Family, 1670-1974, London: William Kimber, 1974, pp. 67–77.
  • Boswell, James. Life of Johnson, ed. R. W. Chapman, intro. Pat Rogers. Oxford: Oxford Univ. Press, 1998.
  • Farington, Joseph. The Farington Diary by Joseph Farington, R.A., edited by James Grieg.
  • Noy, David (2016). Dr. Johnson's friend and Robert Adam's client Topham Beauclerk. Newcastle upon Tyne, UK. ISBN 978-1-4438-9325-1. OCLC 949668955.

External links

Retrieved from "https://justapedia.org/index.php?title=Topham_Beauclerk&oldid=1090960228"