William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire

William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire KG ( born December 14, 1748 in Devonshire House, London, † July 29, 1811 ) was a British nobleman. From 1754 to 1764 he served as William Cavendish, 7th Baron Clifford known.

Life

William Cavendish was the eldest son of four children of Prime Minister William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire ( 1720-1764 ), and his wife Charlotte Elizabeth Boyle, 6th Baroness Clifford ( 1731-1754 ), youngest daughter of Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington and Lady Dorothy Savile.

William Cavendish was given very early in the care of a tutor. Later he studied at Trinity College, University of Cambridge philosophy and politics. After the early death of his father he inherited a huge fortune, and the title of Duke of Devonshire. In the following years the Duke was closely connected to the spa town of Buxton in Derbyshire. He used the profits from his copper mine by he built the Buxton Crescent and the Royal Hospital Devonshire.

On June 6, 1774 William Cavendish married in Wimbledon in London Lady Georgiana Spencer ( 1757-1806 ), the eldest daughter of John Spencer, 1st Earl Spencer, and his wife Georgiana Poyntz, a great- great-granddaughter of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough. The marriage produced three children:

  • Georgiana Dorothy (1783-1858)
  • Harriet Elizabeth (1785-1862)
  • William George (1790-1858), Marquess of Hartington, later 6th Duke of Devonshire

In 1782, the couple learned the Cavendish living separately from her husband Lady Elizabeth Foster ( 1761-1824 ), a daughter of Frederick Hervey, 4th Earl of Bristol, and the Lady Elizabeth Davers, know in Bath, to the close friend of the Duchess Georgiana was. From that time they lived in a " ménage a trois ", which held more than twenty years. After the Duke had become a widower, he married on October 19, 1809 Lady Elizabeth, who ascended so to the Duchess of Devonshire. She bore the Duke two children: Augustus Clifford, 1st Baronet and Lady Caroline St. Jules. In addition, the Duke had another daughter from a socially unacceptable affair, who was born shortly after the death of his first wife.

Offices and Awards

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