Philip Yorke, 2nd Earl of Hardwicke

File:Philip Yorke, 2nd Earl of Hardwicke, by George Romney.jpg

The 2nd Earl of Hardwicke.

Philip Yorke, 2nd Earl of Hardwicke FRS (9 March 1720 – 16 May 1790) was an English politician.

Life

The eldest son of Philip Yorke, 1st Earl of Hardwicke, he was educated at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge. In 1741 he became a Fellow of the Royal Society.

He sat in the House of Commons as member for Reigate (1741–47), and afterwards for Cambridgeshire; and he kept notes of the debates which were afterwards embodied in Cobbett's Parliamentary History. During the political crisis over the loss of Minorca to the French in 1756, Lord Royston was tapped with collecting favorable press accounts of the ministry. He joined his father, as well as Lord Mansfield, to defend the Newcastle ministry during the parliamentary inquiries following the execution of Admiral John Byng. He was styled Viscount Royston from 1754 till 1764, when he succeeded to the earldom. In politics he supported the Rockingham Whigs. He held the office of teller of the exchequer, and was lord-lieutenant of Cambridgeshire and high steward of Cambridge University. He edited a quantity of miscellaneous state papers and correspondence, to be found in manuscript collections in the British Museum. Between 1756 and 1760, he served in the honorary position of vice president of the Foundling Hospital, a charitable institution providing for London's abandoned children.

He is buried in Flitton, Bedfordshire with a monument by Thomas Banks.

Works

With his brother, Charles Yorke, he was one of the chief contributors to Athenian Letters; or the Epistolary Correspondence of an agent of the King of Persia residing at Athens during the Peloponnesian War (4 vols., London, 1741), a work that for many years had a considerable vogue and went through several editions.

Family

On 22 May 1740, he married Lady Jemima Campbell, only daughter of John Campbell, 3rd Earl of Breadalbane, and granddaughter and heiress of Henry Grey, 1st Duke of Kent, who became in her own right Marchioness Grey. They had two daughters:

• Lady Amabel Yorke (1750–1833), married Alexander Hume-Campbell, Lord Polwarth; no issue.
• Lady Mary Yorke (1757–1830), married the 2nd Baron Grantham and had issue.

He was succeeded in the earldom by his nephew Philip.

References

• R. H. Nichols and F. A. Wray, The History of the Foundling Hospital (London: Oxford University Press, 1935).

External links

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Attribution

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: 

Parliament of Great Britain
Preceded by James Cocks John Hervey	Member of Parliament for Reigate with James Cocks 1741–1747 Charles Cocks 1747 1741–1747	Succeeded by Charles Cocks Charles Yorke
Preceded by Samuel Shepheard Soame Jenyns	Member of Parliament for Cambridgeshire with Soame Jenyns 1747–1754 Marquess of Granby 1754–1764 1747–1764	Succeeded by Marquess of Granby Sir John Hynde Cotton, Bt
Political offices
Preceded by Sir Charles Turner, Bt	Teller of the Exchequer 1738–1786	Succeeded by The Earl Bathurst
Honorary titles
Preceded by The Earl of Lincoln	Lord Lieutenant of Cambridgeshire 1757–1790	Succeeded by The Earl of Hardwicke
Peerage of Great Britain
Preceded by Philip Yorke	Earl of Hardwicke 1764–1790	Succeeded by Philip Yorke