George William Hervey, 2nd Earl of Bristol (1721-1775)

Johann Zoffany, RA (Frankfurt am Main 1733 - Kew 1810). Oil painting on canvas, George William Hervey, 2nd Earl of Bristol (1721-1775) by Johann Zoffany, RA (Frankfurt am Main 1733 - Kew 1810), circa 1765/6, inscribed: bottom left: George Willm. Earl of Bristol, Lord Privy Seal and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in the reign of George III. A full-length portrait of a man, standing, in peer’s robes, red with ermine cloak, his right hand on hip, his coronet in his left, a gilt table right, a chair on which lies his bag of privy seal, left; a columned hall forms the background. He is wearing the Key of Office of Groom of the Stole (1770 - 1775). Originally described as wearing Coronation robes, Lord Bristol never attended a Coronation. George William Hervey, 2nd Earl of Bristol (1721-75) was the eldest son of John, Lord Hervey and Mary Lepel; served in the army 1739-42 but made the Grand Tour in 1741; succeeded his father as Baron Hervey of Ickworth in 1743, and his grandfather as 2nd Earl of Bristol in 1751; Envoy to Turin, 1755-58, and Ambassador to Madrid, 1758-61; nominated Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, 1766-67, never going there, but pocketing the proceeds and advancing the ecclesiastical career of his younger brother, Frederick Augustus; Lord Privy Seal, 1768-70; Groom of the Stole and First Lord of the Bedchamber, 1770-75. He died unmarried and was succeeded by his next brother, Augustus John. In David Erskine’s edition of Augustus Hervey’s Journals the 2nd Earl of Bristol is described as “of a delicate constitution and of an overbearing pride”. Although accepting the annual salary of £16,000 and allowances of £3,000 when appointed Lord Lieutenant, he never visited Ireland; perhaps just as well, for Horace Walpole (Memoirs....George III, III, p.198) refers to him as a man, “whose stately manners and delicate form were ill-adapted to please so rude and turbulent a people as the Irish.” He died at Bath, doubtless in search of a cure for his gout, which, according to Horace Walpole, he “starved himself to keep off. This brought on paralytic strokes which have despatched him.” (Letter to Sir Horace Mann, 20 March 1775). Ickworth, Suffolk (Accredited Museum)