George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax

George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax (November 11, 1633 - April 5, 1695) was an English statesman, writer, and politician.

Family and early life

He was the great-grandson of Sir George Savile of Lupset and Thornhill in Yorkshire (created baronet in 1611,) was the eldest son of Sir William Savile, 3rd baronet, who distinguished himself in the civil war in the royalist cause and who died in 1644, and of Anne, eldest daughter of Lord Keeper Coventry. He was thus nephew of Sir William Coventry, who is said to have influenced his political opinions, and of Lord Shaftesbury, afterwards his most bitter opponent, and great-nephew of the Earl of Strafford; by his marriage with the Lady Dorothy Spencer, he was brother-in-law to Lord Sunderland. He entered public life with all the advantages of lineage, political connections, great wealth and estates, and uncommon abilities. He was elected member of the Convention Parliament for Pontefract in 1660, and this was his only appearance in the Lower House. The Duke of York sought a peerage for him in 1665, but was successfully opposed by Clarendon, on the ground of his "ill-reputation amongst men of piety and religion." The chancellor?s real motives may have been Savile?s connection with Buckingham and Coventry. The honors were, however, only deferred for a short time and were obtained after the fall of Clarendon on December 31, 1667, when Savile was created Baron Savile of Eland and Viscount Halifax.

Related Topics:
1611 - Baronet - Civil war - 1644 - Sir William Coventry - Lord Shaftesbury - Earl of Strafford - Lord Sunderland - Convention Parliament - Pontefract - 1660 - Duke of York - 1665 - Clarendon - Buckingham - December 31 - 1667

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Halifax was twice married, first in 1656 to the Lady Dorothy Spencer ? daughter of the 1st earl of Sunderland and of Dorothy Sidney, "Sacharissa" ? who died in 1670, leaving a family; and secondly, in 1672, to Gertrude, daughter of William Pierrepont of Thoresby, who survived him, and by whom he had one daughter, Elizabeth, Lady Chesterfield, who seems to have inherited a considerable portion of her father?s intellectual abilities. On the death of his son William, 2nd Marquess of Halifax, in August 1700 without male issue, the peerage became extinct, and the baronetcy passed to the Saviles of Lupset, the whole male line of the Savile family ending in the person of Sir George Savile, 8th baronet, in 1784. Henry Savile, British envoy at Versailles, who died unmarried in 1687, was a younger brother of the first marquess. Halifax has been generally supposed to have been the father of the illegitimate Henry Carey, the poet, but this is doubtful.

Related Topics:
1656 - Earl of Sunderland - 1670 - 1672 - William, 2nd Marquess of Halifax - August - 1700 - 1784 - Versailles - 1687 - Henry Carey

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