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Shelburne, Parry and associates
I confess a particular interest in the career of
William Petty, Second Earl of Shelburne.
The area around my home in High Wycombe was once owned by him, and some
of its scenic features can be traced to him.
Even before his birth, the name William Petty
carries some distinction, thanks to the reputation of one of his ancestors.
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Petty, with no schooling and no
money, contrived to study medicine and chemistry abroad, had a chair in music
at Gresham College and one in anatomy at Oxford by the age of twenty-eight,
surveyed the whole of Ireland, designed ships and founded the science of
political economy. From Claire Tomalin, Samuel Pepys: The
Unequalled Self (Viking 2002). |
The surname is inherited through a grandmother. Quite a common feature of those days, as
noble lines ending in a woman keep their name by passing it on to her husband
or son: he has to accept the change in order to inherit the family wealth. George Jackson
adds the surname Duckett on this basis.
Petty inherits other names: Lord Fitzmaurice (an
Irish title) through his grandfather; Earl of Shelburne from his father. His final apotheosis is as Marquis of Lansdowne,
a title earned through his own efforts.
He also inherits Loakes Manor Estate in High
Wycombe, which he later sells. Meanwhile
he has bought Bowood in Wiltshire, where descendants still live.
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Mechanization, Boulton told Lord
Warwick in 1773, made it possible for Birmingham manufacturers to defeat
Continental competitors. The other key
factor, he insisted, was the separation of processes. Lord Shelburne had anticipated him when he
reported on the Birmingham hardware trades seven years before, putting its
success down to three factors: the shaping of malleable metal by stamping
machines, which replaced human labour, the division of work between as many
hands as possible, making tasks so simple that even a child could do it (and
often did), and the 'infinity of smaller improvements which each workman has
and sedulously keeps secret from the rest'. From Jenny Uglow, The Lunar Men
(Faber and Faber 2002). |
He has an impressive list of friends and contacts,
including Matthew Boulton, Benjamin Franklin and Jeremy Bentham. There are eighteen entries under his name in
Uglow's index. For a while he employs
Joseph Priestley as librarian: Bowood boasts the room where Priestley once
discovered oxygen. And a political
career culminates in a short but significant spell at the head of government.
A brief early spell in the army is notable for the
contacts he makes in the Twentieth Regiment of Foot: particularly Isaac Barré, who serves
under Wolfe at Quebec.
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Lord Shelburne (whom you may have
heard of as Lord Fitzmaurice) has long been a good friend to me, and some
weeks ago upon his father's death made me a most handsome offer of a seat in
Parliament in his room. I have
canvassed the borough and there is not a shadow of opposition. From letter of Isaac Barré to General
Jeffrey Amherst, 19 June 1761. |
Barré takes over the Wycombe seat when Shelburne
moves to the Lords. On purchasing
Bowood, Shelburne also becomes patron of the two seats at Calne. Barré moves there, while the second seat goes
to another protégé, John Dunning. With Shelburne in the Lords, they form a
triumvirate of dissidence during the American War.
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The influence of the Crown has increased, is increasing,
and ought to be diminished. Motion by John Dunning in Commons,
6th April 1780, carried 233-215. |
Another army contact is David Parry. He is third son of "Humphrey Parry of
Pwllhairlog in the county of Flint", who (to judge by his 1744 will) also
had land in Denbighshire, Merionethshire and Carmarthenshire. Most of Humphrey’s estate is left to his
eldest son Robert, while second son Roger, who serves for a while as a ship’s
chaplain, is destined for the Church.
David goes into the army. By the end of 1759 he is captain in the
Twentieth Foot, having distinguished himself at the Battle of Minden. His rank advances to major in 1770.
From 1768 there is a
business link between Parry and Henry Cort, which
leads to litigation in 1775, the year of his last
entry in the army list. We can assume he
retires in 1776 (thereby missing the regiment's posting to America and their
surrender at Saratoga), following the death of his father-in-law Edmund Okeden.
Okeden has no male heir: Parry is the main
beneficiary of his will, as well as executor, and is henceforth "Major
David Parry of Moore Critchell in the County of Dorset".
In 1782, with Shelburne heading the Government,
Parry is appointed Governor of Barbados.
Codicils to his will in 1792 and 1793 show him suffering ill health, so
we can’t be sure whether he gives up the post before his death in 1794.
A pity Cort does not square things properly with
Parry. Otherwise he might rise in the
esteem of Parry’s friend Shelburne, and be able to count on his help when misfortunes crowd around in the late 1780s.
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..my
true worthy & honorable friends the Marquis of Lansdowne & the Earl
of Wycombe his son.. Executors named in David Parry’s
will, 18 November 1788. |
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RELATED
TOPICS John Becher and the American War Thomas Morgan
and the American War The Arethusa,
Sandwich and Keppel |
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