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STANHOPE, Hon. John (1705-48), of Blackheath, Kent.
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Family and Education
b. 5 Jan. 1705, 3rd s. of Philip Stanhope, 3rd Earl of Chesterfield; bro. of Hon. Charles, Philip Dormer, Lord Stanhope, and Hon. Sir William Stanhope. unm. suc. yr. bro. Charles 1736.
Offices Held
Sec. to embassy at The Hague 1728-32; ld. of Admiralty Feb. 1748-d.
Biography
John Stanhope was brought in by the Duke of Newcastle for Nottingham on a compromise in 1727. From 1728 to 1732, he was secretary to his brother, Philip Dormer, Lord Chesterfield, ambassador at The Hague. In 1733 he followed Chesterfield into opposition, voting against the excise bill, his only recorded vote in this Parliament. When the question of his re-election came up, Newcastle was informed that
ever since the last election he has so totally neglected the town that both sides seem to be set as one man against him; and Lord Chesterfield has about a fortnight ago completed the disgust by chasing through the town on his way to Scarborough without taking notice of anybody here.1
He was not put up for Nottingham but in 1736 he was returned on his family’s interest at Derby, in succession to his younger brother, Charles, whose fortune he also inherited. He continued to follow Chesterfield politically, voting against the Government till 1744, when Chesterfield joined the Administration, after which he became a government supporter. When Chesterfield resigned in 1748, John Stanhope was made a lord of the Admiralty, which, Chesterfield wrote,
he never would have been as long as I had continued in, the resolution being taken to exclude all those who might otherwise have been supposed to have come in upon my interest. As I retire without quarrelling, and without the least intention to oppose, I saw no reason why my brother should decline this post; and I advised him to accept of it, and the rather as it was the King’s own doing.2
He died 4 Dec. 1748
of a fit of the gout, which he had had about a month in his hands, and feet, and which fell at last upon his stomach and head.3