PENDARVES, Alexander (?1665-1725), of Roskrow, Cornw.

A Tory, Pendarves was brought in for Launceston by his intimate friend George Granville, later Lord Lansdowne.1Mrs. Delany, Autobiog. and Corresp. i. 22-4. Like Lansdowne, he was arrested in 1715 and was brought prisoner to Plymouth, in company with several other Cornish gentlemen suspected of being favourable to the Pretender.2Walter Moyle to Humphry Morice, 26 Sept. 1715, Morice mss in Bank of England. After his release, he visited Lansdowne at Longleat, where he met and married Mary Granville, the future Mrs. Delany. According to her he was ‘excessively fat, of a brown complexion, negligent in his dress, and took a vast quantity of snuff, which gave him a dirty look; his eyes were black, small, lively and sensible; he had an honest countenance, but altogether a person rather disgusting than engaging. He was good-natured and friendly, but so strong a party man that he made himself many enemies’.3Mrs. Delany, 34. His name was sent to the Pretender as a Jacobite supporter in 1721, and he was in contact with Atterbury’s agents during the plot of 1722.4Stuart mss 65/16; Report from the Committee appointed by the House of Commons to examine Christopher Layer and others, app. F. 11. He died of a fit on 8 Mar. 1725, leaving his widow, who had unfortunately dissuaded him from signing his will the day before, with nothing but her jointure.5Mrs. Delany, 107.