MONTAGU, Lord Robert (c.1710-62), of Kimbolton, Hunts.

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1715-1754, ed. R. Sedgwick, 1970
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

1734 - 21 Oct. 1739

Family and Education

b. c.1710, 2nd and yet. s. of Charles Montagu, 1st Duke of Manchester, by Dodington, 2nd and yst. da. of Robert Greville, 4th Baron Brooke of Beauchamps Court. m. 3 Apr. 1735, Harriet, da. and coh. of Edmund Dunch of Little Wittenham, Berks., gt.-niece of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, 2s. 2da. suc. bro. as 3rd Duke of Manchester 21 Oct. 1739.

Offices Held

V.-chamberlain to Queen Caroline 1735-7; ld. lt. Hunts. 1739-d.; ld. of the bedchamber 1739-61; ld. chamberlain to Queen Charlotte 1761-d.

Biography

Lord Robert Montagu was brought in as a Whig for the county by his brother, the Duke of Manchester, in 1734, though Sarah, Duchess of Marlborough, refused her support because ‘I know what your Grace has been obliged to vote and likewise what my Lord Robert Montagu must vote for the same reason’.1 His only recorded vote was in favour of the Administration on the Spanish convention in 1739. At the time of his marriage Lord Hervey, his ‘brother vice-chamberlain’, wrote to Henry Fox:

What will Miss Harriet make Ld. Robert besides a husband, a father and a penitent? There are few improvements his head will allow of; but I dare say she knows his wants as well as her own so well that all the improvement in her power will be amply bestowed.2

He succeeded to the dukedom in October 1739, but lost his family’s electoral pre-eminence in the county to his kinsman, the 4th Earl of Sandwich, and was unable to nominate candidates for the 1747 and 1754 Parliaments.3 He died 10 May 1762.

Ref Volumes: 1715-1754

Author: R. S. Lea

Notes

  • 1. HMC 8th Rep. pt. 2 (1881), p. 110.
  • 2. Lord Ilchester, Lord Hervey and his Friends, 225.
  • 3. See HUNTINGDONSHIRE.