Lancelot Blackburne

Lancelot Blackburne (sometimes Blackburn or Blackbourne), (10 December 1658 – 23 March 1743) was an English clergyman, who became Archbishop of York, and — in popular legend — a pirate.

Description by Walpole

In a 1780 letter to David Dalrymple, Horace Walpole gave a lengthy description of Blackburne:

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~

: He was perfectly a fine gentleman to the last, to eighty-four; his favourite author was Waller, whom he frequently quoted… I often dined with him, his mistress, Mrs. Conwys, sat at the head of the table, and Hayter, his natural son by another woman, and very like him, at the bottom, as chaplain: he was afterwards Bishop of London. I have heard, but do not affirm it, that Mrs. Blackbourne, before she died, complained of Mrs. Conwys being brought under the same roof. To his clergy he was, I have heard, very imperious. One story I recollect, which showed how much he was a man of this world: and which the Queen herself repeated to my father. On the King's last journey to Hanover, before Lady Yarmouth came over, the Archbishop being With her Majesty, said to her, "Madam, I have been with your minister Walpole, and he tells me that you are a wise woman, and do not mind your husband's having a mistress."

~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~ ~