Constituency Dates
Salisbury 1741 – 1747
Family and Education
b. ?1694, 2nd s. of Sir William des Bouverie, 1st Bt., and yr. bro. of Sir Edward des Bouverie, 2nd Bt.. educ. M. Temple 1709; Ch. Ch. Oxf. 20 Oct. 1711, aged 17. m. (1) 31 Jan. 1724, Mary (d. 16 Nov. 1739), da. and h. of Bartholomew Clarke, of Delapré Abbey, Northants., 2s. 4da.; (2) 21 Apr. 1741, Elizabeth, da. of Robert Marsham, 1st Baron Romney, 2s. suc. to Kent estates of uncle Jacob des Bouverie 1722 and bro. as 3rd Bt. 21 Nov. 1736; took name of Bouverie in lieu of des Bouverie by Act of Parliament 1737; cr. Visct. Folkestone and Baron Longford 29 June 1747.
Offices Held

Recorder, Salisbury 1743 – d.; 1st pres. of the Soc. of Arts 1755 – d.

Address
Main residence: Longford Castle, Wilts.
biography text

Sir Jacob Bouverie, a Turkey merchant, inherited £18,000 from his father in 1717,1PCC 89 Whitfield. and estates near Folkestone from his uncle in 1722. In 1737 he gave the Georgia Society £1,000 from charitable bequests left by his father and brother, for which he was made a trustee of the Society in March 1737 and a common councillor a year later.2HMC Egmont Diary, ii. 320-21, 372, 469. Returned as a Tory for Salisbury in 1741, he voted against the Government in all recorded divisions, in spite of which he was made a peer at the dissolution in 1747. According to Horace Walpole, who calls him ‘a considerable Jacobite’, he bought his peerage from the King’s mistress, Lady Yarmouth, for £12,000.3To Mann, 26 June 1747. Establishing a personal interest in one seat at Salisbury, which was held by members of his family for nearly 100 years, he died 17 Feb. 1761.

Author
R.S.L.
Volume
Commons 1715-1754
Notes
  • 1. PCC 89 Whitfield.
  • 2. HMC Egmont Diary, ii. 320-21, 372, 469.
  • 3. To Mann, 26 June 1747.