(660) The Hon. William Finch, second son of Daniel, sixth Earl of Winchilsea, had been envoy in Sweden and in Holland.  He continued to hold the office of vice-chamberlain of the household till his death in 1766.  These two brothers, and their elder brother Daniel, seventh Earl of Winchilsea, are the persons whom Sir Charles Hanbury Williams, calls, on account of the blackness of their complexions, “the dark, funereal Finches.” [His widow, Charlotte, daughter of the Earl of Pomfret, was appointed governess to the young princes and princesses.]

(661) Lord Sidney Beauclerk, fifth son of the first Duke of St. Albans; a man of bad character.  Sir Charles Hanbury Williams calls him “Worthless Sidney.”  He was notorious for hunting after the fortunes of the old and childless.  Being very handsome, he had almost persuaded Lady Betty Germain, in her old age, to marry him; but she was dissuaded from it by the Duke of Dorset and her relations.  He failed also in obtaining the fortune of Sir’ Thomas Reeve, Chief Justice of the (common Pleas, whom he used to attend on the circuit, with a view of ingratiating himself with him.  At length he induced Mr. Topham, of Windsor, to leave his estate to him.  He died in 1744, leaving one son, Topham Beauclerk, Esq.-D. [This son, so celebrated for his conversational, talents, and described by Dr. Jonson as uniting the eloquent manners of a gentleman with the mental acccomplishments of a scholar, married, in 1768, Lady Diana Spencer, daughter of the Duke of Marlborough, and died in 1780.]

(662) John JefFries, secretary of the treasury.-D.

(663) Sir John Strange was made master of the rolls, but not till some years afterwards; he died in 1754.

(664) From the Pretender.  Lord Gower had been, until he was made privy-seal, one of the leading Jacobites; and was even supposed to lean to that party, after he had accepted the appointment.

(665) Lady Isabella Finch, third daughter of the sixth Earl of Winchilsea, first lady of the bedchamber to the Princess Amelia.  It was for her that Kent built the pretty and singular house on the western side of Berkeley Square, with a fine room in it, of which the ceiling is painted in arabesque compartments, by Zucchi;-now the residence of C. B. Wall, Esq.-D. [In this house her ladyship died unmarried, in 1771.)

(666) Sir Thomas Robinson, minister at Vienna; be was made secretary of state in 1754. (And a peer, by the title of Lord Grantham, in 1761.-D.)

(667) John Carmichael, third Earl of Hyndford.  He had been sent as envoy to the King of Prussia, during the first war of Silesia.  He was afterwards sent ambassador to St. Petersburgh and Vienna, and died in 1767.-D.

(668) The Duke of Bedford had not the Garter till some years after this.

275 Letter 78 To Sir Horace Mann.