James Waldegrave, 1st Earl Waldegrave

James Waldegrave

Coat of arms of James Waldegrave, 1st Earl Waldegrave, KG, PC

James Waldegrave, 1st Earl Waldegrave, KG, PC (1684 – 11 April 1741) was a British diplomat who served as ambassador to Austria and France.

Life

Waldegrave was the son of the 1st Baron Waldegrave and Henrietta FitzJames, the illegitimate daughter of James II and Arabella Churchill.

Educated in France, Waldegrave inherited his father's title in 1690, and on 20 May 1714 he married Mary Webb (who died in childbirth in 1719), a daughter of Sir John Webb, 3rd Baronet and they had three surviving children:

• James Waldegrave, 2nd Earl Waldegrave (1715–1763)
• John Waldegrave, 3rd Earl Waldegrave (1718–1784)
• Lady Henrietta Waldegrave (1717–1753), married firstly, Lord Edward Herbert, a son of the 2nd Marquess of Powis and had issue; married secondly, John Beard (a singer at Covent Garden).

After the death of his wife, he converted from Roman Catholicism (the religion he was brought up in) to Anglicanism to take his seat in the House of Lords. He was briefly a Lord of the Bedchamber in 1723 and again from 1730to 1741. He was ambassador extraordinary to France 1725 and Ambassador to Austria from 1727 to 1730. He then succeeded Horatio Walpole as ambassador to France from 1730 to 1740. During his ambassadorship to France, he still spent enough time in London to be one of the founding Governors of the new charity there, known as the Foundling Hospital (created in 1739). In 1729, he had been created Earl Waldegrave and on his death in 1741, was succeeded by his eldest son, James.

Sir James inherited Hever Castle in Kent which had remained in the Waldegrave family for 160 years. It was deemed too small for Sir James and he sold it in the early 1700s to Sir William Humfreys, Lord Mayor of London (1714).

Ancestry

Ancestors of James Waldegrave, 1st Earl Waldegrave

16. Sir Edward Waldegrave, 1st Baronet, of Hever Castle 8. Sir Henry Waldegrave, 2nd Baronet, of Hever Castle 17. Eleanor Lovell 4. Sir Charles Waldegrave, 3rd Baronet, of Hever Castle 18. Edward Paston 9. Anne Paston 19. Margaret Berney 2. Henry Waldegrave, 1st Baron Waldegrave 20. Sir Francis Englefield, 1st Baronet, of Wootton Basset 10. Sir Francis Englefield, 2nd Baronet, of Wootton Basset 21. Jane Browne 5. Helen Englefield 22. William Brooksby 11. Winifred Brooksby 23. Dorothy Wiseman 1. James Waldegrave, 1st Earl Waldegrave 24. James VI of Scotland and I of England 12. Charles I of England 25. Anne of Denmark 6. James II of England 26. Henry IV of France 13. Henrietta Maria of France 27. Marie de' Medici 3. Henrietta FitzJames 28. John Churchill 14. Sir Winston Churchill 29. Sarah Winston 7. Arabella Churchill 30. Sir John Drake 15. Elizabeth Drake 31. The Hon. Eleanor Boteler

External links

• "Waldegrave, James (1685-1741)" . Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.