Catalogue description Correspondence of George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax

Savile, George, 1st Marquess of Halifax (1633 1695), politician and political writer, was born on 11 November 1633 at Thornhill Hall, near Dewsbury, Yorkshire, the second of seven children and eldest son of Sir William Savile, third baronet (1612 1644), landowner [see under Savile family (per. c. 1480-1644)]. His mother was the Hon. Anne (d. 1662), eldest daughter of Thomas Coventry, first Baron Coventry, and his second wife, Elizabeth. Henry Savile (1642 1687) was his brother. He was the grandfather of Dorothy Boyle, Countess of Burlington (1699-1758) who published his papers in 1750.

Known as  The Trimmer because of his moderating position in the fierce party struggles of his day. Although his conciliatory approach frequently made him a detached critic rather than a dynamic politician, the principles he espoused have appealed to many 20th-century political thinkers. Savile sat in the Convention Parliament that restored King Charles II to the throne in 1660, and in 1668 he became Viscount Halifax. Admitted to the Privy Council in 1672, he opposed Charles s covert pro-French and pro-Roman Catholic policies. Nevertheless, he balanced this opposition by fighting the anti-Catholic Test Act of 1673. In 1676 Halifax was dismissed from the Council for repeatedly showing hostility to the King s chief minister, Thomas Osborne, earl of Danby; he regained his seat, however, in 1679 and in the same year was created marquess of Halifax. Adhering to his principles of moderation, he successfully led the fight in the House of Lords (Nov. 15, 1680) against a bill that would have excluded Charles s Roman Catholic brother James, duke of York, from succession to the throne. In October 1682 he became lord privy seal. But upon the accession of the Duke of York as James II in February 1685, Halifax was demoted to lord president of the council, from which office he was summarily dismissed on October 21. He spent the next three years writing political pamphlets. His Character of King Charles the Second was written during this period, and The Character of a Trimmer, a statement of his political creed, was published in 1688.

When James s enemy William of Orange invaded England in November 1688, Halifax tried, at the behest of James, to arrange a compromise between the two men. After he failed, he sided with William. It was largely a result of his efforts that the Convention Parliament of 1689 accepted William and Mary as joint sovereigns of England. In the new regime, Halifax was lord privy seal and chief minister of the crown until his enemies in both the Whig and Tory parties forced him to resign in February 1690.

'His heart', Burnet observed, 'was much set on raising his family'. Contemptuous of titles Halifax claimed to have acquired his own because they 'might be of use to his family'. He also 'made a vast estate for them' (Bishop Burnet's History, 1.493). Indeed, by 1695 property acquired or improved after 1651 had increased his rental income (excluding fines) from £6550 to £14,704; parks and residences, if let, would have added £700 to that. At twenty-one years' purchase for freehold and eleven for leasehold his real estate was worth £313,469.

Halifax was knowledgeable about financial matters. Sir William Petty's Quantulumcunque Concerning Money (1682; printed 1695) was addressed to him. In 1683 he led a syndicate that offered to farm the excise with a £600,000 advance to the exchequer. For decades, moreover, he systematically sold life annuities. Like marriage portions, they presumably provided much of the capital for enlarging his estate. Sixteen years after his death, when approximately fifty annuities (including several sold by his son) were still outstanding, they represented principal of over £40,500.

Among other conspicuous expenditures befitting Halifax's dignity, after 1669 he built Halifax House, designed by William Taylor, a mansion of about fifty rooms on a double lot in St James's Square. (Additional work in 1678 included piping river water to his bathtub.) In 1724, when dilapidated, it sold for £6500. After 1677 he demolished some monastic remains and doubled the size of Rufford Abbey, valued at £20,000 in 1720. Fire damage to the 123-room structure in 1692 cost more than £2000 to repair. In 1686, for £760, he purchased a smaller (9 acre) more accessible retreat: Berrymead Priory in Acton, Middlesex.

Any satisfaction Halifax had in elevating his family would have been tempered with anxiety about ensuring the continuation of its male line. When this was threatened he made settlements of his estates in 1688, 1693, and 1695, which by-passed female heirs in favour of more distantly related males. In October 1687 Halifax's brother died unmarried and his eldest son died childless. The second son, William, married one month later and had a son who died in infancy before his wife's death in 1694. In February 1689 the third son, George, died unmarried. Of Halifax's daughters, Anne died in July 1689, leaving a daughter, while Elizabeth, with £20,000, married Lord Stanhope in March 1692; their son, the future fourth earl of Chesterfield, was born two years later.

On 31 March 1695, probably at his house in St James's Square, Halifax ate an undercooked chicken. A violent fit of vomiting pushed his constipated intestine through an old rupture, and gangrene set in. Although his condition quickly worsened he refused to let his son Lord Eland be notified lest Eland's wedding, on 2 April, should be delayed. He took the Anglican sacrament and asked forgiveness for the scandal caused by his loose way of talking about religion. Speechless by the time Eland arrived on 5 April, he died an hour later. On the 11th he was buried in Westminster Abbey. His widow survived him, and died on 1 October 1727.

[Sources: Mark N. Brown, 'Savile, George, first marquess of Halifax (1633 1695)', Ocford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2004). By permission of Oxford University Press; Morrill, J. S.. "George Savile, 1st marquess of Halifax." Encyclopedia Britannica, November 7, 2021. https://www.britannica.com/biography/George-Savile-1st-Marquess-of-Halifax.]

Du Moulin was tutor to Henry Savile who became Lord Eland after the death of his brother, William Savile, 2nd Marquess of Halifax (Lord Eland).

Mr Bird was a servant in the household of George Savile, 1st Marquess of Halifax.