John Hervey, 1st Earl of Bristol

John Hervey, 1st Earl of Bristol (27 August 1665, Bury St Edmunds – 20 January 1751) was an English politician.

John Hervey was son of Sir Thomas Hervey of Bury St Edmunds. He was educated in Bury and at Clare College, Cambridge.^[1] He became Member of Parliament for Bury St Edmunds in March 1694.

In March 1703 he was created Baron Hervey, of Ickworth in the County of Suffolk, and in October 1714 was created Earl of Bristol as a reward for his zeal in promoting the principles of the revolution and supporting the Hanoverian succession.

Marriages and issue

Lord Bristol was married twice: firstly to Isabella (died 1693), daughter of Sir Robert Carr, 3rd Baronet, of Sleaford, and secondly to Elizabeth (died 1741), daughter and co-heir of Sir Thomas Felton, 4th Baronet, and his wife Lady Elizabeth, daughter and co-heir of James Howard, 3rd Earl of Suffolk and 3rd Baron Howard de Walden.

Lord Bristol had several sons:

• Carr (1691-1723), whose mother was the Earl of Bristol's first wife. He was also educated at Clare College, Cambridge, and was Member of Parliament for Bury St Edmunds from 1713 to 1722. He died unmarried on 14 November 1723. It has been suggested that he was the father of Horace Walpole.
• John (1696–1743), Lord Bristol's eldest son from his second marriage, was a politician, court wit and pamphleteer. On the death of his half-brother Carr in 1723 he took the courtesy title of Lord Hervey and gained some renown both as a writer and in politics. In 1733, he was summoned to the House of Lords through a writ of acceleration in his father's junior title of Baron Hervey. He also predeceased his father.
• Thomas (1699-1775), was one of the members for Bury from 1733 to 1747; held various offices at court; and eloped with Elizabeth, wife of Sir Thomas Hanmer. He had very poor health, and his reckless life frequently brought him into pecuniary and other difficulties. He wrote numerous pamphlets, and when he died Dr Johnson said of him, "Tom Hervey, though a vicious man, was one of the genteelest men who ever lived".
• Felton (1712-1773), was also Member of Parliament for the family borough of Bury St Edmunds. Having assumed the additional name of Bathurst, Felton's grandson, Felton Elwell Hervey-Bathurst (1782-1819), was created a baronet in 1818, and on his death a year later the title descended to his brother, Frederick Anne Hervey-Bathurst (1783-1824).

When John Hervey, 1st Earl of Bristol, died in January 1751, the earldom of Bristol and the barony of Hervey, along with the estates of Ickworth House, passed to his grandson George, the eldest son of John, Lord Hervey.

References

• This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica, Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
• Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs