William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Devonshire (25 January 164018 August 1707) was an English Whig politician who sat in the House of Commons of England from 1661 until 1684 when he inherited his father's peerage as Earl of Devonshire and took his seat in the House of Lords. Cavendish was part of the "Immortal Seven" which invited William of Orange to depose James II of England as part of the Glorious Revolution, and was rewarded for his efforts by being elevated to the Duke of Devonshire in 1694.

Life

Cavendish was the son of William Cavendish, 3rd Earl of Devonshire, and his wife Lady Elizabeth Cecil. After completing his education he made the customary tour of Europe, and then in 1661, he was elected Member of Parliament for Derbyshire in the Cavalier Parliament. He was a Whig under Charles II of England and James II of England and was leader of the anti-court and anti-Catholic party in the House of Commons, where he served as Lord Cavendish. In 1678 he was one of the committee appointed to draw up articles of impeachment against the Lord Treasurer Lord Danby.

He was re-elected MP for Derbyshire in the two elections of 1679 and in 1681. He was made a privy councillor by Charles II, but he soon withdrew with his friend Lord Russell, when he found that the Roman Catholic interest uniformly prevailed. In January 1681 he carried up to the House of Lords the articles of impeachment against Lord Chief Justice William Scroggs, for his arbitrary and illegal proceedings in the court of King's bench, and later when the king declared his resolution not to sign the bill for excluding the duke of York (afterwards James II), he moved in the House of Commons that a bill might be brought in for the association of all his majesty's Protestant subjects. He also openly denounced the king's counsellors, and voted for an address to remove them. He appeared in defence of Lord Russell at his trial, and after the condemnation he gave the utmost possible proof of his attachment by offering to exchange clothes with Lord Russell in the prison, remain in his place, and so allow him to effect his escape.

The famed political philosopher Thomas Hobbes spent the last four or five years of his living at Chatsworth House, owned by the Cavendish family, and died at another Cavendish estate, Hardwick Hall in December 1679. He had been a friend of the family since 1608 when he first tutored an earlier William Cavendish.

In 1684 he succeeded to the peerage as Earl of Devonshire on the death of his father and then sat in the House of Lords. The year before he had ended the successful career of the singer and dancer Mary Campion. She is thought to have given her last performance on 14 March 1704 (and she may have been the daughter of one of his servants). Cavendish installed her as his mistress at Bolton Street in Westminster despite having several mistresses already, a number of children by them and of course Lady Mary Butler, his wife.

Family

Cavendish married Lady Mary Butler (1646–1710), daughter of James Butler, 1st Duke of Ormonde and his wife, Lady Elizabeth Preston, on 26 October 1662. They had four children:

  • Lady Elizabeth Cavendish (1670–1741), married Sir John Wentworth, 1st Baronet of North Elmsall, and had issue
  • William Cavendish, 2nd Duke of Devonshire (4 June 1729)
  • Lord Henry Cavendish (167310 May 1700)
  • Lord James Cavendish (died 14 December 1751)

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File:Coat of arms of William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Devonshire, KG, PC, FRS.png|Quartered arms of William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Devonshire, KG, PC, FRS

File:Chatsworth house fountain frontage.jpg|Chatsworth House, seat of the Dukes of Devonshire

File:Lady Spencers Walk - geograph.org.uk - 803617.jpg|Hardwick Hall, an Elizabethan country house of the Duke in Derbyshire

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References

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