and 12th parliaments of Great Britain, and in the present, for the University of Cambridge. On Nov. 6, 1756, he was appointed Solicitor General, and Dec. 27, 1761, was promoted to that of Attorney General; but he resigned it on Nov. 2, 1763. He was a Fellow of the Royal Society, one of the Trustees of the British Museum, and Recorder of Dover. He married first, Miss Freeman, daughter of — Freeman, Esq. of Hartfordshire, by whom he had a son and a daughter; secondly, in December 1762, Miss Johnson, sister to the lady of Sir Wm. Beauchamp Proctor, Bart. by whom he has left a son and a daughter. An express was sent to Sir Joseph Yorke, at the Hague, on Saturday morning, informing him of his brother's being appointed Lord Chancellor, and in the evening another with the melancholy account of his death. "Mr. Yorke was of the University of Cambridge, where he resided longer than persons of his rank usually do, and there laid the foundation of the great character which he sustained through life, by the improvements he made in all good learning, and the constant attention he paid to all the duties of morality and religion : which so endeared him to the whole University, that, as soon as he was capable of it, he was complimented with the office of standing counsel to that learned Body; and, upon the very first vacancy, was unanimously elected their Representative in parliament: having before served in three parliaments for the borough of Ryegate in Surrey. Very soon after his removal to Lincoln's Inn, he wrote a book, called—Considerations on the Law of Forfeitures for High Treason; which was much taken notice of at the time, and has passed through many editions. In a few years he came into very large and extensive practice: and, what is particularly worthy of reinark, his business increased greatly upon his noble father's resignation of the Great Seal. After having served the office of Solicitor and Attorney General, (the latter of which he resigned some years ago) he was now, by the immediate choice of his Sovereign, and the universal expectation of the public, called to the highest honours in his profession; which were conferred upon him absolutely, without any conditions either asked or accepted by him. We are informed of the following intelligence from a cor respondent. Lord Morden, the late Lord Chancellor, (since Lord Camden's removal was determined on) received hourly invitations from the Ministry, to accept the Seals, which he not only declined, but assured several Members in the opposition (particularly Lord Rockingham) that he never would, or could, on terms which he could not but look on as derogatory to his particular sentiments, at well as the interest of his country. On Wednesday morning last, he received a particular message immediately from his Majesty, desiring his attendance at the Queen's palace; and there was so warmly solicited by him in person, that, unable to withstand such repeated requisition, he assented. On his way home, he called at Lord Rockingham's; when meeting several Members of the Opposition, he told them what had happened, at which they all upbraided him in such poignant terms of his infidelity, that he was instantly taken ill; from whence he was removed to his own house, where he continued so till Saturday evening, when he died. The Duke of Grafton, being informed of this circumstance, about eight the same evening, he, with Lord Weymouth, and several others at the head of administration, immediately waited on his Majesty; when it was there resolved, that the Seals should not be disposed of till after the ensuing term. The original cause of Mr. Yorke's illness was a slight fever, for which he had, on a cold morning, taken salts, and too soon afterwards walked out as usual, in a retired field near Montague House; where being met by a friend, he was apprised of his danger, and desired to take care of himself. This circumstance, it is little to be doubted, checked the eruption he was subject to, and threw it upon his bowels. 'A similar circumstance happened to the late Sir Dudley Ryder, Lord Chief Justice of the King's Bench, as has now happened to the late Lord Chancellor Yorke; both alike having received his Majesty's grant for a peerage, but died before their patents were sealed: 'Last Saturday, at one o'clock, the Right Hon. the late Lord Chancellor signed above an hundred writs, which was only a few hours before his Lordship expired.' "All the foregoing paragraphs are taken from Lamb's Cambridge Journal of Saturday, January 27, 1770, where is also a letter from Faction, as he styles himself, to Sir Geo. Saville and others in the Opposition, as follows: 'The dismission of Lord Camden, who uniformly abetted our cause, and did his utmost to take off the wheels from the chariot of Government, that they might drive heavily, was a severe stroke upon our party; and as misfortunes are said never to come alone, this has been doubled, by the unexpected manner in which his successor accepted the Seals; without any conditions of a Revetsion of a Teliership of the Exchequer for his son, or of a pension, fixed, or floating, for himself. Indeed, I could not believe that any man in his senses would act in such a patriotic manner; (particularly at this crisis, when Government is so weakened by party and faction, that he had nothing to do but to propose his own terms) and accordingly, I considered the conditions upon which a man of vur own would have accepted the Seals, and I ventured to publish these as the very terms Mr. Yorke had made. They were generally looked upon as pretty moderate, every thing considered, and consisted only of the Reversion of a Tellership of the Exchequer, a pension of 3000l. per annum, (just what my favour ite Chatham enjoys) and a Peerage. How was I amazed, how thunderstruck, to find, that on his part no terms were proposed at all; and that he accepted of the Seals (to the great joy of the Long Robe, as well as of every man of property in the kingdom) with a full intent of doing his duty in that exalted station, without the least attachment to any party whatever! The stability which the acquisition of so able and upright a man would have given to Government is now blasted by his untimely death; a misfortune, which will be severely felt and lamented by the public, as long as -politeness, good nature, consummate abilities, and unblemished integrity, claim the least share of their reverence and respect! As for you, my friends, moderate, if possible, your joy, and let not that inhuman miscreant Junius draw his savage pen to aggravate the feelings of the widow and the fatherless upon this mournful occasion. Nay, I would even have you give yourselves the lie, and publicly contradict that infamous paragraph, which you have inserted in the public papers-That Mr. Yorke made terms with the Ministry before he would accept of the Seals. Such a recantation is but common justice to the ashes,' &c. "He was of a lathy, thin, meagre, disjointed habit of body, and had a particular, disagreeable motion with his head and body. "His death will be regretted by numbers in the University, who depended on his advancement to rise with him, and by none more than by Dr. Rutherforth the Divinity Professor, who courted him much; by Dr. Plumptre, Master of Queen's College; by Dr. Bernardiston, Master of Bene't College; by the Bishop of Lincoln, Dr. Green, who would have hoped for a translation, to have made room for his brother, the Dean of Lincoln, to have succeeded him in that church; by Dr. Gordon, the impudent Archdeacon of Lincoln; by Dr. Robert Richardson, son to the Master of Emanuel, and Chaplain at the Hague to his brother, Sir Joseph Yorke; by my namesake, Charles Cole, Deputy Recorder of Cambridge; by Archdeacon Plumptre, his most intimate friend; and by that bawling fiend, Dr. Samuel Salter, Master of Charter House; with numbers more of the same kidney; Dr. Bernardiston only excepted, who had no other expectations from him than being his tutor; for he is a contented, easy, and unambitious man. "In May, 1755, he married Catherine Freeman, who died July 10, 1759; by whom he had Philip, born May 29, 1757; Margaret and Catherine, who died infants. December 25, 1762, he married Miss Agnes Johnson of Berkhamsted, by whom he has Charles, Philip, * and Caroline. † "Mr. Yorke's illness began with a fainting fit on the Friday, during the time of his holding the first General Seal. Cambridge Chronicle and Journal, Saturday, Jan. 27, 1770. "In the Gentleman's Magazine for January 1770, p. 38, is a specimen of Mr. Charles Yorke's abilities as a poet, in three little pieces composed by him." Joseph, (not Philip,) now an Admiral, and Lord of the Admiralty. Editor. + Now Countess of St. Germains. Editor. 51. William Sancroft, D. D. of Emanuel College, Lord Archbishop of Canterbury. "In an excellent little poem, called Fashion Displayed, printed soon after the death of King William, and by some supposed to have been written by Wm. Shippen, Esq. and republished in 1774, in the third volume of Miscellaneous and Fugitive Pieces, printed by T. Davies, in Russel Street, at p. 254 is this apostrophe, after having severely and justly characterised Tenison, Lloyd of Worcester, and Burnet. Unhappy Church, by such usurpers sway'd! How are thy prelates chang'd from what they were, In its own heavenly innocence secure, The teeth of Time, the blasts of Envy shall endure! "He was born at Fresingfield, Jan. 30, 1616. Fellow of Eman. much esteemed by the learned of his time, particularly by Bishop Cosin, who not only made him his Chaplain, but his friend and confident, and Prebendary of his Cathedral. When dispossessed of his Fellowship he travelled and spent much of his time in France and Italy, and returned rather before the Restoration. Elected Master of Emanuel Aug. 14, 1662. "Notwithstanding his abuse of Archbishop Sancroft, in his Own Times, yet Burnet owns, in his Preface, p. iv. of his third volume of the Reformation, That he had the free use of every thing in the Lambeth Library by order of that Archbishop.' Bui this he said in 1715, when his passions were cooled, and he going out of the world; and especially to abuse Bishop or Mr. Collier for his remarks on his History of the Reformation • Tenison. |