Charles Hanbury Williams

(b. Dec. 8, 1708, London, England – d. Nov. 2, 1759, Chelsea, London )

Gender: M

Charles Hanbury Williams (1708-1759) was the son of John Hanbury, a Welsh ironmaster, and assumed the surname Williams in 1720 under the terms of a significant bequest from his godfather. He attended Eton, where he knew George Lyttelton and Henry Fielding. After completing the Grand Tour, he settled at Coldbrook Park near Abergavenny, which had been purchased with his inheritance. He was MP for Monmouthshire in 1735-47 and for Leominster 1754-59; he was a staunch supporter of Sir Robert Walpole and opponent of William Pulteney, Earl of Bath. He was successively British Ambassador to Poland, Saxony, Prussia and Russia from 1747-1759, but his arrogant behaviour at the Prussian court in Berlin led to his peremptory recall. He married Lady Frances Coningsby in July 1732, but they were separated in 1742. He was known as a poet, a wit and satirist, and also for his sexual incontinence. Dr Johnson, according to Boswell, described him as “our lively and elegant though too licentious lyrick bard”. He was a member of the circle of Horace Walpole. Williams lapsed into insanity, possibly as the result of the syphilis with which he had infected his wife, and committed suicide at the age of fifty-one. His works were published in 1822 by his grandson, the Earl of Essex.

Also known as:

Charles Hanbury Williams

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