Volume 4

A genealogical and heraldic history of the commoners of Great Britain and Ireland, enjoying territorial possessions or high official rank but uninvested with heritable honours / by John Burke.

  • Burke, John, 1787-1848.
Date:
1833-1838
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: A genealogical and heraldic history of the commoners of Great Britain and Ireland, enjoying territorial possessions or high official rank but uninvested with heritable honours / by John Burke. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    629/838 (page 601)
    The fourth son, John Douglas, esq. settled in London, nnd lived in the parish of St. George, Hano- ver Square. He possessed the estate of Caldicott Hill, near Harrow, where he died in 1762. He m. 29th April, 1731, Mary, daughter of William Gardiner, esq. of Ha- ling, near Croydon, and Send Place, near Dorking, Surrey,* by whom he had nine children, (most of whom died young and without issue,) of these, j. Thomas, his eldest son, b. 26th April, 1732, was originally engaged in mer- cantile pursuits, and afterwards re- sided at Grantham, where, and in other parts of Lincolnshire, he possessed property, and served as high sheriff of that county in the year 1776. He was well known on the turf, and en- tered a “ Confederate with Earl Grosvenor, in the match book at Newmarket, from 1780 to 1785. He d. in London in 1787, and left issue, John. Archibald, who entered the army, married, and went with his re- giment to the West Indies, where he died very young, and left one daughter. Harriett, m. to the Lord Bloom- field. Louisa, m. to John Norris, esq. of Hawley House, Hants. Mary, m. to Colonel Robert M‘Do- nald of the royal artillery. Juliet, in. to the Rev. Robert Hall, of Westborough, Lincolnshire, ii. William, his seventh child, of whom presently. hi. James, his youngest, b. in 1753, m. Margaret, daughter of John Older- sliaw, M.JD. of Leicester, and died at Brighton in 1819, f leaving two sons and one daughter. The seventh child, William Douglas, esq. b. 28th February, * In an extract from “ the pedigree of the an- cient knightly family of Gardiner, of Bermondsey, Peckham, and Dorking, in the county of Surrey, extracted from the visitation books of that county, and deduced down to Mary, sole surviving daugh- ter and heir of W illiam Gardiner, of Dorking and Croydon, in Surrey, by Anne, daughter of Richard Peck, now wife of John Douglas, of the parish of St. George, Hanover Square, gentleman, from other authentic evidences, by John Warburton, Somerset Herald, A0. 1754.” It is noticed that the said William Gardiner fell heir to, and pos- sessed the family seat of Haling, near Croydon, which was built by Stephen Gardiner, Bishop of ' IVinchester, and lord chancellor of England, temp. Henry VIII. and Mary, and that he was the last survivor of his family in the male line. Queen Elizabeth, when young and much out of health, was sent there for change of air, and deriving great benefit, said its name should be changed to Healing, or All-heal, from its salubrious effect upon I Ris life was singularly chequered. His firsi youthful outset was with an eminent manufac- turer, at Middleton, near the seat of Sir Ashtor ever, in Lancashire, wrho was then forming hi.s ramous Museum. Here, instead of attending tc usiness, he was assiduously assisting Sir Ashtor in the stuffing of birds; he was, therefore, re- o moved and placed more suitably to his genius, ai a military college in Flanders, where he gained reputation by the translation of the work of a cele- -a ed j? rench engineer, on fortification. He after- ar s entered the Austrian army as a cadet, at the ime vben there was a menace of war with the nr s, and at Vienna be became intimate with the ?■ f • , aron f rpnck. Being sent by Prince John ■ !c lterstein, to purchase horses in England. L.- JpP0®ely observing, that he thought his heac ho *nin® 0Tl of Constantinople would nol PYohQVer^i kecom/ng sight, he did not return, anc Ho ■^•us*;6an for the British service, ceMortainr.d 3 iieutenant’s commission in the Lei- i tia, during the heat of the general wai then raging, and was put on the staff of Colonel Delbeig, of the engineers, engaged in fortifying Chatham lines on the threatened invasion. After the peace of 1783, he married, and deter- mined to enter the church. Pie accordingly kept collegiate terms, and graduated at Oxford; was ordained, got moderate preferment, and became a chaplain to the Prince of Wales. He had naturally great taste and talent for the fine arts, which had been matured by the study of some of the principal galleries of painting and sculpture in Europe, over a good portion of which he had travelled : he produced some excellent portraits of his friends, both in oil and miniature, as an amateur ; but his favourite and lasting study was antiquarian research, in which he attained great eminence. He associated much with the literary and scientific men of his day, and having- opened some hundred sepulchres of the Celtic, British, Roman, and Danish inhabitants of Bri- tain, he formed a large museum of their contents, and was elected a fellow of the Society of Anti- quaries. His publications were numerous, and like his life, varied. Besides his “ Translations,” he wrote “ Travelling Anecdotes through various parts of Europe,” much in the manner of Sterne, (with characteristic and humorous plates, drawn and etched by himself,) whicli went through three edi- tions from 1782 to 1786. Various novels. A Dissertation on the Antiquity of the Earth. Two Dissertations on the Brass Instruments called Celts, and other Arms of the Ancients. Plis principal work was the “ Nenia Britannica,” in folio, to illustrate the history of Britain in the 5th century, with numerous plates (of his own execution) of arms, coins, shields, weapons, gold, silver, and other female decorations and ornaments, with a variety of implements and curious relics deposited with the dead in the many barrows he had opened. His literary life closed with the publication of | some sermons.