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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 29 November 2011
The present paper was prepared because the career of Hugh, Lord Willoughby—President of the Society from 1754 until his death in 1765—had been largely overlooked by historians, and denied even the briefest of general summaries. Yet it was a career characterized by industry, by versatility, by probity; and if in political areas it was impaired by Willoughby's diffidence, so that the opportunities arising from his own undoubted abilities and from Chancellor Hardwicke's patronage were scarcely ever taken up, it seems to have reached much more complete fruition intellectually in this Nonconformist peer's association with the Society of Antiquaries, the British Museum, the Royal Society, the Society of Arts, and the Warrington Academy. Most particularly it epitomizes the close involvement of Dissenters in the eighteenth-century Enlightenment.
page 169 note 1 Gazetteer and New Daily Advertizer of Saturday, 26th January 1765.
page 170 note 1 See present writer's article: ‘Some Leading Promoters of Nonconformity and their Association with Lancashire Chapelries following the Revolution of 1688’, Trans. Lancs, & Ches. Antiq. Soc, vols. 75–6 (1965–1966), pp. 123–63.Google Scholar
page 170 note 2 The Lancashire Militia accounts for 1708 contain payments by the D.L.s to a ‘Capt. Willough by’, probably Charles Willoughby Esq. of Horwich, afterwards 14th/4th Lord Willoughby of Parham and father to the subject of this article; this Lord Willoughby's will, pr. Chester 1715 (Lancs. Rec. Off.), and Lancashire Memorials of the Rebellion, 1715 (Chetham Soc., 1845), pp. 116–17Google Scholar; Nightingale's Lancs. Nonconf. ii, pt. 1, pp. 103–4; Baker's, Life and Times of the Rev. James Woods … (1859), p. 16.Google Scholar
page 170 note 3 Lancs. Rec. Off.: DDX/94/98 (School Register). Willoughby's mother had remarried (with James Walton of Wigan) in January 1716/17, thus ceasing to be joint guardian under the terms of her first husband Charles Lord Willoughby's will. She had married him at Bolton, 18th October 1705, being Esther, youngest dau. of Henry Davenport II (1633/4–1709) of Little Lever and Darcy Lever, Bolton, by his wife (m. 25th October 1659) Elizabeth, dau. of Adam Fernside of Little Lever, a Presbyterian yeoman (d. 1685, aged over 75). Elizabeth's brother Adam, of Little Lever (d. 1688) was a Minister. Henry Davenport's sister Elizabeth m. Presbyterian yeoman George Brownlow of Rivington (d. 1698) and Henry was her exec, in 1700. Esther, mother of Hugh Lord Willoughby, d. at Rivington and was bur. at Horwich Chapel-of-ease, 16th January 1761 (Chester Marriage Bonds (Lancs. & Ches. Rec. Soc.); Bolton Par. Reg., Bolton Libr.; Chester Wills & Horwich Chap, reg., Lancs. Rec. Off.).
page 170 note 4 H., McLachlan, English Education under the Test Acts …; (Manchester Univ. Press, 1931), p. 75Google Scholar; Monthly Repository, vol. 13 (1818), pp. 89–90Google Scholar; Crippen, T. G., ‘Nonconformity in Somerset’, Somerset County Express, 25th October 1913, citing the J. Wilson MSS. at New College, HampsteadGoogle Scholar; D.N.B., s.v. ‘Mauduit, Israel’.
page 170 note 5 John Rylands Library, Crawford Muniments, Box D.III, Willoughby bundle; B.M. Add. MS. 35401, f. 197. Willoughby was, however, reported to be in Liverpool, 9th November 1732 (Liverpool Municipal Records, 1700–1835, ed. Sir Picton, J. A. (L'pool, 1886), p. 12), when the town's freedom was ordered to be presented to him.Google Scholar
page 170 note 6 Abraham Dawson (1733), Sam. Bourn III (1742), and Wm. Gaskell (1754). The first two came to Rivington Chapel direct from Glasgow and were virtual contemporaries of Willoughby.
page 171 note 1 John Rylands Library, Crawford Muniments, Willoughby bundle: Willoughby's accounts.
page 171 note 2 He was, however, made a J.P. (Lancs.) 1st August 1735, and was in Lancs. 20th January 1737/8 when he donated £100 to Rivington Chapel, and 25 th February following when he leased some land in Rivington from John Andrews Esq. (Lancs. Rec. Off.: Comms. of Peace, and Shawcross MSS.; Rivington Chapel Trust: Trust Deeds). Later he contributed the same sum to the (by then Anglican-controlled) chapel-of-ease in Rivington, of which he had become a trustee on 5th June 1755 (Church Commissioners: Bounty Papers: Rivington Benefice File, F 3967; Rivington Church vestry: Churchwardens’ accounts).
page 171 note 3 B.M. Add. MS. 5829 (Cole's MSS., vol. xxviii), p. 176.
page 171 note 4 MS. note, dating from nineteenth cent., penes Miss E. E. Dawes of Wokingham.
page 171 note 5 H. of L. Rec. Off.: Opinion of the Attorney-General on the Willoughby Peerage Petition, 17th January 1767, passim. This document wrongly dates the first petition in 1732, as a result of an incorrect assumption that the second was presented in February 1733, n.s., not February 1733/4.
page 171 note 6 Cal. Treas. Bks., vol. xxxii, pt. ii, p. 550; Willoughby's accounts.
page 172 note 1 Lords' Journals; H. of L. Rec. Off.: L. Committee Bks., both passim.
page 172 note 2 Royal Soc. Libr.: Journal Bks. xviii, 360–1.
page 172 note 3 B.M. Add. MS. 35397, f. 8v.
page 172 note 4 Lancs. Rec. Off.: DDK/1741/7: loose letter No. 6. Willoughby was certainly a D.L. (Lancs.) by 27th April 1761 (Rawstorne's, Account of the Regiments of Royal Lancashire Militia 1759 to 1870 (Lancaster, 1874), p. 119.Google Scholar
page 172 note 5 B.M. Add. MS. 35589, f. 289: Willoughby (at Shaw Place) to Hardwicke, 17th July 1747.
page 172 note 6 John Byrom's Journal and Literary Remains, ed. Parkinson, vol. ii, pt. ii, Chetham Soc. vol. 44 (1857), pp. 422–3; B.M. Add. MS. 35606, ff. 71–2: John Lawry, Prebendary of Rochester, to Hon. Philip Yorke, 20th May 1753; Add. MSS. 35351, f. 143, 35397, ff. 105–6.
page 172 note 7 Add. MS. 35605, f. 320.
page 173 note 1 Foster, J., Discourses on all the Principal Branches of Natural Religion and Social Virtue, vol. i (London, 1749)Google Scholar. The high esteem of Foster, who clearly knew him well, would indicate that Willoughby's own Nonconformity was by this time strongly rationalist in form.
page 173 note 2 B.M. Add. MS. 35606, ff. 49, 51.
page 173 note 3 Soc. of Antiqs.Lib.: Soc. Min.Bks.v, 219,223. Folkes, then a Vice-President, became the Society's President in 1750.
page 173 note 4 Ibid. vi, 10, 60, 85–7, 90.
page 173 note 5 Ibid. vi, 89–90; vii, 7.
page 173 note 6 Ibid, vi, 82; vii, 1.
page 173 note 7 Ibid, vii, 14, 59.
page 173 note 8 Roy. Soc. Lib.: Journal Bks. xx, 259, 410, 451–2, 525.
page 174 note 1 Roy. Soc.Lib.: Journal Bks. xx, 573–4; Council Minutes, iv, 47; Perry, G. G., ‘.John Green (1706?-1779), Bishop of Lincoln’, D.N.B. Another function he not infrequently performed for the Royal Society was that of an auditor of its annual accounts.
page 174 note 2 R.S. Lib.: Journal Bks. xxi, 176, 187–93.
page 174 note 3 L.J. xxviii, 142b; B.M. Director's Office: Trustees' General Meeting Minutes, i, 1–2.
page 174 note 4 Ibid, i, 8–10.
page 174 note 5 H. of L. Rec. Off.: L. Committee Bks.; and L.J., xxviii, 336a.
page 174 note 6 B.M. Trustees' Gen. Mtg. Mins. i, 83–4; Standing Comm. Mins. i, 67.
page 174 note 7 Ibid.ii,407–9; iv, 930; Gen. Mtg.Mins.ii, 511.
page 174 note 8 Earwaker, J. P., Local Gleanings: an archaeological and historical magazine chiefly relating to Lancashire & Cheshire (2 vols., 1877–1878), pp. 277–9.Google Scholar
page 175 note 1 On 12th July 1754, by secret ballot of the Council (S.A. Lib.: Soc. Min. Bks. vii, 117–19, 141–2, 144–6; Council Min. Bk. i, s.v. 12th July 1754).
page 175 note 2 S.A. Lib.: ‘Ants: Corr: 1717–1799 (J-Z)’, Letter P.I. He nominated James West (his only rival nominee for the presidency), James Burrow, and James Theobald Esqs., and Dr. John Ward. He had defeated West by a majority of 7 votes to 5 (B.M. Add. MS. 35398, f. 189; S.A. Lib.: Soc. Min. Bks. vii, 141–2, 144–6).
page 175 note 3 B.M. Add. MS. 5829 (Cole's MSS., vol. xxviii), p. 176.
page 175 note 4 Add. MS. 35401, ff. 184–5; S.A. Lib.: Council Bk. i, s.v. 12th July 1754. Those present at the election were: Ames, Mr. Joseph; Baker, Mr. Hen.; Burrow, Jas., Esq.; Chauncy, Dr. Chas.; Compton, Chas., Esq.; Eyre, Wm., Esq., Sergeant-at-Law; Parsons, Dr. Jas.; Reynardson, Sam., Esq.; Rogers, Mr. Chas.; Rooke, Mr. Hen.; Theobald, Jas., Esq.; Thompson, Sir Peter; Only the name of Ames is mentioned in connection Ward, Dr. John, with Hardwicke, to whom he dedicated his Typographical Antiquities in 1749.
page 175 note 5 Evans, Joan, , A History of the Society of Antiquaries (Oxford, 1956), p. 127.Google Scholar
page 176 note 1 S.A. Lib.: Soc. Min. Bks. vii, 167; Council Mins. i, s.v. 12 March 1755.
page 176 note 2 Ibid., s.v. 26th January, 13 th April, and 21st December 1758; 22nd February, 8th March, and 5th April 1759; 24th January and 21st May 1760; 17th March 1763,6th December 1764; B.M. Add. MS. 35400, f. 41.
page 176 note 3 S.A. Lib.: Soc. Mins. vii, 228–30, 235–8, 241–2, 253, 256–8, 264, 268; viii, 114, 203, 205, 210, 241–2, 257–60, 359–65; ix, 42, 73–4, 147, 357.
page 177 note 1 Ducarel, A Series of above Two Hundred Anglo-Gallic, or Norman and Aquitaine Coins of the Ancient Kings of England …; (1757); Pettingal, The Latin Inscription, on the Copper Table, Discovered in the Year 1732, near Heraclea …; (1760), and A Dissertation upon the Tascia, or Legend, on the British Coins of Cunobelin and others (1763); Webb, An Account of a Copper Table … Discovered in the year 1732, near Heraclea …; (1760) and A Short Account of Danegeld …; (1756).
page 177 note 2 Ward, A. W. (ed.), The Poems of John Byrom (Chetham Soc., 1894), 1, ii, 465. The poem is dated 1758 by Revd. Wm. Cole (B.M. Add. MS. 5819, p. 152).Google Scholar
page 177 note 3 S.A. Lib.: ‘1758 Papers (including papers read)’, s.v. 9th March; Soc. Mins. viii, 154.
page 177 note 4 Ibid, viii, 292, 425–30.
page 177 note 5 Ibid, ix, 147–8.
page 177 note 6 The Christian Reformer, N.S., no. cxii (London, April 1854), p. 363; Manchester Col., Oxford: Seddon Corresp., R. Savage to Seddon, 11th October 1754.Google Scholar
page 178 note 1 Christian Reformer, N.S., no. cxii, pp. 362–5, 367–8; Dr. Williams's Lib.: Seddon Corresp.: P. Touchet to Seddon, 22nd November [1755?].
page 178 note 2 Warrington Municip. Lib.: MS. 1312: minutes of Academy Trustees. A probable consequence of Willoughby's presidency of the Academy was his election by 1758 as a governor of Rivington Grammar School (which afterwards sent several pupils to the Academy), while it is to the year 1759 that his only recorded activity as a trustee (from 1736) of Blackrod Grammar School belongs (Kay, M. M., Hist, of Rivington & Blackrod Grammar School (Manch. U.P., 1931), p. 193; Lancs. Rec. Off.: DDX/94/59: Blackrod School Account Bk.).Google Scholar
page 178 note 3 Dr. Williams's Lib.: MS. 38103: Seddon Papers: folder entitled ‘Rev. John Seddon to his wife, etc.’, Letters 64, 66, 67; Warr. Mun. Lib.: MS. Letter enclosed in original MS. of Kendrick's Profiles of Warrington Worthies.
page 178 note 4 Royal Soc. Lib.: Journal Bks. xxiv, 810; xxv, 361–2; introductory memoir by Edward Percival, M.D., to his father Percival's, ThomasWorks (Bath, 1807), 1, pp. xv–xvi.Google Scholar
page 178 note 5 Priestley's, Memoirs (London, 1809), p. 44Google Scholar; Works, ed. Rutt, (London, 1817), i, p. 63Google Scholar; and Chart of Biography (Warrington, 1765).
page 179 note 1 Id., Works, i, p. 58 and n.
page 179 note 2 R.S. Lib.: Journal Bks. xx, 410; xxiii, 209; xxiv, 517.
page 179 note 3 Ibid, xxi, 176; Phil. Trans, liii, 353Google Scholar.
page 179 note 4 Journal Bks. xxi, 203–4; xxii, 420; xxiii, 618; xxiv, 517.
page 179 note 5 Ibid, xix, 191, 264; xxi, 424–5. Another noteworthy guest of Willoughby's (in May 1746) was Samuel Squire, from 1748 chaplain to the Duke of Newcastle and later Bishop of St. David's. Willoughby did not sponsor Squire's candidature, but this was under consideration when he was Willoughby's guest (Ibid., xix, 99; D.N.B.). He served occasionally on the society's Council.
page 179 note 6 Journal Bks. xxi, 540; xxv, 358.
page 179 note 7 Ibid, xxii, 255; xxiii, 739; xxiv, 43; xxii, 362; xxiii, 620–1; xxiv, 194.
page 179 note 8 Present writer's Ph.D. thesis: ‘A Neglected Revolution Family: the Lancashire Lords Willoughby of Parham and their Association with Protestant Dissent, 1640–1765’ (Liverpool University, October 1970), p. 399, and Appendix VII (ii).
page 180 note 1 Dr. Williams's Lib: MS. 38103 (Seddon Papers), R. Savage to J. Seddon, 15th March 1753, 16th October 1759; A Lancashire Doctor's Diary, 1737 to 1750 (Southport, 1895), p. 18.Google Scholar
page 180 note 2 S.A. Lib.: Soc. Min. Bks. vii, 265; viii, 28, 102, 141, 154, 210, 241, 292, 358. Another interesting nominee of Willoughby's at the Royal and Antiquarian Societies (May 1760, January 1761) was the Revd. Roger Baldwin, M.A., Rector of Witnasham, Suffolk, on the first date and of Aldingham, Lancs., on the second. He had been a guest of Willoughby at both societies, was patronized by the Cavendishes, and was apparently desired by Willoughby as his ‘chaplain’ in 1763 (R.S. Lib.: Journal Bks. xxiii, 451, 885; S.A. Lib.: Soc. Min. Bks. viii, 195, 199, 215, 279; B.M. Add. MSS. 4322, ff. 8–11, 35400, ff. 105–6).
page 180 note 3 R.S.A. Lib.: Soc. Mins. ii, 52, 54; R.S. Lib.: Journal Bks. xxi, 198–9.
page 180 note 4 R.S.A. Lib.: Soc. Mins. ii, 110; iii, 3; iv, 1; v, 1; vi, 150; vii, 97; viii, 96; ix, 99.
page 180 note 5 R.S.A. Lib.: Mins. of Comms., 1760–1, s.v. ‘Colonies’, pp. 12, 19, 21.
page 180 note 6 Ibid. 1763–4, s.v. ‘Manufactures’, p. 2; Dossie, R., Memoirs of Agriculture and other occonomical Arts (1768), i, p. 17Google Scholar.
page 181 note 1 C, Walford, History of the Equitable Society … (London and New York, 1875), p. 2.Google Scholar
page 181 note 2 Papers relating to the Disputes with the Charter Fund Proprietors in the Equitable Society (1769), p. 85.
page 181 note 3 P.R.O.: S.P. 44/262.
page 181 note 4 Papers relating to the Disputes …, p. 21 n.; B., Lillywhite, London Coffee Houses (1963), pp. 744–5.Google Scholar
page 181 note 5 Deed of Settlement … (1777), clauses 37–8; Papers relating to the Disputes …, pp. 20 n., 93; Ogborn, M. E., Equitable Assurances … (1962), P. 53.Google Scholar
page 181 note 6 Papers relating to the Disputes …, p. 93; Ogborn, op. cit., p. 56; E.L.A.S. Lib.: Minutes of the Weekly Courts, ii, 203.
page 181 note 7 Walpole's, Memoirs of the Reign of George II (2nd edn., 1846), ii, p. 285.Google Scholar
page note 182 1 B.M. Add. MSS. 35399, f. 106; 35401, ff. 233V, 236.
page note 182 2 Ibid. 35399, ff. 107V–8V.
page note 182 4 A volume of Lysons's Magna Britannia quoted in his M.I. at Rivington Unitarian Chapel gives his ‘stipend from Government’, presumably in his latter years, as 1,200 guineas p.a.
page note 182 5 H. of L. Rec. Off.: L. Committee Bks.; Lords' Journals, passim. There was also a slight, but probably not significant, increase in the number of Bills he introduced: one to three per session from 1743 to 1744 until 1759; one to five thereafter.
page note 182 6 Reporting to the House from all but fifty or so, of which he had adjourned a dozen. He also reported from a further twenty-two select committees (according to the Journals) which it is not recorded that he chaired.
page note 182 7 Including, be it noted, two of the Duke of Bridgwater's Navigation Bills (March 1760, March 1762), and the Liverpool Harbour Bill (May 1762).
page note 183 1 His obituary notice, as 2nd Earl of Hardwicke, on Willoughby: Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser, 26th January 1765. In corroboration of this, Willoughby was several times among those peers who checked the Journals of the House, and on committees concerned with precedents, etc.
page note 183 2 B.M. Add. MSS. 5819, p. 155; 5829, p. 176.
page note 183 3 Ibid. 35606, f. 51.
page note 183 4 Ibid. 35352, f. 123.
page note 184 1 B.M. Add. MSS. 32941, ff. 210–11, 304; 35597, f. 147.
page note 184 2 Harrison's Time-Piece Bill: ‘An Act for the Encouragement of John Harrison to publish and make known his Invention of a Machine, or Watch, for the Discovery of the Longitude at Sea’ (Statutes at Large, 3 Geo. III, c. 14).
page note 184 3 B.M. Add. MS. 35400, ff. 38, 40.
page note 184 4 Ibid. 35425, f. 54; 35361, f. 79; 4322, f. 12.
page note 184 5 Ibid. 35400, ff. 204–5, 208; Gazetteer and New Daily Advertiser for 26th January 1765; Williamson's Liverpool Advertiser and Mercantile Chronicle for 1st February 1765. (Willoughby died in his Craven Street house at 1 a.m. on 22nd January, not on 21st January as generally reported.) All literary and other material alluded to in this paper is edited in extenso in the large first draft of the writer's Ph.D. thesis, ‘A Neglected Revolution Family …’ (7 vols., Liverpool, 1969), lodged at London in the Society of Antiquaries Library and in Lancashire at the County Record Office Library, Preston. The most manageable text concerning Willoughby's family as a whole is that of the final thesis (Liverpool, 1970) lodged at the University and at the Royal Society of Arts Library; while a succinct general summary from the Northern standpoint appears in Northern History (vol. 7, 1972).
