Lot Essay
The arms are those of Wentworth with those of Bright on an escutcheon of pretence, as borne by Charles, 2nd Marquess of Rockingham, born in 1693. He succeeded to the peerage in 1750 and took his seat in the House of Lords on May 21, 1751. He served as Lord of the Bedchamber to both King George II and HGeorge III and at the latter's coronation on September 22, 1761 he bore the scepter. He was Prime Minister 1765-1766 and again from March 27, 1782 until his death in July of that year.
A keen hunter, he was also a well-known patron of the Turf. Horace Walpole spoke thus of him: "More childish in his deportment than in his age, he was totally void of any information. Ambitious, with excessive indolence; fond of talking of business, but dilatory in the execution, his single talent lay in attracting depandants: yet, though proud and self-sufficient, he had almost as many governors as dependants. To this unpromising disposition, he had so weak a person of frame and nerves, that no exigence could surmount in timidity of speaking in public; and having been known only to that public by his passion for race-horses, men could only be cured of their surprize at seeing him First-Minister ... his personal character was blameless" (Memoirs, vol. II, pp. 139-140). He was a friend and patron of Edmind Burke, he wrote the following inscription for a monument to him in Wentworth Park: "A man worthy to be held in remembrance, because he did not live for himself ... he far exceeded all other statesmen in the art of drawing together, without the seduction of self-interest, the concurrence and co-operation of various dispositions and abilities of men, whom he assimilated to his character and associated in his labours" (Albemarle, Memoirs of the Marquess of Rockingham and his Contemporaries, vol. II, p. 486, cit., Complete Peerage).
He married in 1752 Mary, daughter and heiress of Thomas Bright of Badsworth, Yorkshire, who brought with her a dowry of 60,000. Rockingham died of influenza at the age of 52 and was buried in York Minster July 20, 1782. Without children, his titles became extinct and his vast estates devolved upon William, 2nd Earl Fitzwilliam, whose mother was Anne, daughter of the 1st Marquess.
A set of four waiters by Kandler, of the same year, engraved with the Wentworth crest and en suite with the present salver, was sold by Sotheby's, London, July 4, 1989, lot 220.
A keen hunter, he was also a well-known patron of the Turf. Horace Walpole spoke thus of him: "More childish in his deportment than in his age, he was totally void of any information. Ambitious, with excessive indolence; fond of talking of business, but dilatory in the execution, his single talent lay in attracting depandants: yet, though proud and self-sufficient, he had almost as many governors as dependants. To this unpromising disposition, he had so weak a person of frame and nerves, that no exigence could surmount in timidity of speaking in public; and having been known only to that public by his passion for race-horses, men could only be cured of their surprize at seeing him First-Minister ... his personal character was blameless" (Memoirs, vol. II, pp. 139-140). He was a friend and patron of Edmind Burke, he wrote the following inscription for a monument to him in Wentworth Park: "A man worthy to be held in remembrance, because he did not live for himself ... he far exceeded all other statesmen in the art of drawing together, without the seduction of self-interest, the concurrence and co-operation of various dispositions and abilities of men, whom he assimilated to his character and associated in his labours" (Albemarle, Memoirs of the Marquess of Rockingham and his Contemporaries, vol. II, p. 486, cit., Complete Peerage).
He married in 1752 Mary, daughter and heiress of Thomas Bright of Badsworth, Yorkshire, who brought with her a dowry of 60,000. Rockingham died of influenza at the age of 52 and was buried in York Minster July 20, 1782. Without children, his titles became extinct and his vast estates devolved upon William, 2nd Earl Fitzwilliam, whose mother was Anne, daughter of the 1st Marquess.
A set of four waiters by Kandler, of the same year, engraved with the Wentworth crest and en suite with the present salver, was sold by Sotheby's, London, July 4, 1989, lot 220.