# Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/North, William

​NORTH, WILLIAM, sixth Lord North (1678–1734), elder son of Charles, fifth baron, by Catherine, only daughter of William, lord Grey of Wark, and grandson of Dudley, fourth baron North [q. v.], was born on 22 Dec. 1678. His father, upon his marriage in 1673, had been summoned by special writ to take his seat in the House of Lords as Lord Grey of Rolleston, and he succeeded to the barony of North in 1677, from which time he was known as Lord North and Grey. A few months after his father's death in January 1691, his mother remarried the Hon. Francis Russell, governor of Barbados, leaving his younger brother Charles and his sister Dudleya to the young peer's care. The three had been brought up together, and among them there had grown up ‘a deep and romantic affection.’ The two brothers entered at Magdalene College, Cambridge, together on 22 Oct. 1691, and Charles, the younger, graduated M.A. in 1695, and was elected to a fellowship at his college in 1698. William, however, left Cambridge without taking a degree in 1694, and entered at Foubert's military academy, which had been established by William III in Leicester Fields, with a view to qualify himself for the profession of arms. Dissipation soon involved him heavily in debt, and to extricate himself, he, by the advice of his uncle, Roger North, travelled for three years, remaining abroad until he came of age and took his seat in the House of Lords in 1699. In March 1702 William III signed his commission as captain of footguards in the new levies. He was soon despatched to the seat of the war, and on 15 Jan. 1703 he was made colonel of the 10th regiment of foot (Beatson, Political Index, ii. 210). He lost his right hand at Blenheim on 13 Aug. 1704 (Boyer, Annals of Anne, 1735, p. 153). When Marlborough returned to England in December, Lord ​North accompanied him, and in the following February he was made brigadier-general. In the campaign of 1705 he was again at Marlborough's side, and on 26 Oct. 1705 he married Maria Margaretta, daughter of Vryheer van Ellemeet, treasurer of Holland. Shortly afterwards he was in England, and protested against the vote of the lords that the church was not in danger. He spent most of the next three years with the army in Flanders; but he took part in the debates about the union, protesting against the small proportion of land-tax to be paid by Scotland according to the ninth article of the union. He also took a prominent part in the debate about Sacheverell, trying to quash the impeachment. He was promoted lieutenant-general in May 1710, and in November of that year he was sufficiently under the domination of party spirit to oppose a vote of thanks being awarded to Marlborough for the campaign just concluded. Nevertheless in January 1712 he had the grace to entertain Prince Eugène during his visit to London (ib. p. 536). He had been created lord-lieutenant of Cambridgeshire early in 1711, in the room of the Duke of Bedford, and on 13 Dec. 1711 he was made a privy councillor (ib. p. 532); he also became governor of Portsmouth.
His Jacobite tendencies increased in strength as Anne's reign approached its end. On 31 June 1713 the Earl of Wharton moved that an address should be presented to the queen urging her to use her influence with the friendly powers of Europe that they should not harbour the Pretender. After a long silence North represented with some readiness that such an address would imply distrust of her majesty, and he asked, in conclusion, since most of the powers were in amity with her majesty, where would their lordships have the Pretender reside? To this Peterborough replied that the fittest place for him to improve himself was Rome. Similarly in April 1714 North spoke warmly against setting a price upon the Pretender's head (ib. pp. 184–5). In June of the same year he made his last notable speech in the house in favour of the Schism Bill (ib. p. 705).
With the advent of the Brunswick line North's career virtually came to an end. He took no part in the insurrection of 1716, and corresponded rarely with leading Jacobites abroad. Nevertheless on 28 Sept. 1722 he was committed to the Tower for his complicity in Atterbury's plot (Hist. MSS. Comm. 5th Rep. App. p. 180). He managed to escape from the Tower, and got as far as the Isle of Wight, but was there re-arrested. Finally North was admitted to bail in 20,000l. for himself and four sureties of 10,000l. each. He shortly afterwards retired to Paris. Little is known of his subsequent wanderings on the continent; in March 1732 a Captain Powell dined with him in Paris, and found him ‘something off his bloom, but not off his politeness’ (Wentworth Papers, p. 476). He was then on the eve of setting out for Spain. He died, a childless man and an exile, at Madrid on 31 Oct. 1734. He had joined the Roman catholic communion in 1728, and thereby lost the friendship of his old ally Atterbury. His second title of Lord Grey expired; the barony of North devolved upon his second cousin Francis, first earl of Guilford [q. v.], who had succeeded his father Francis, the lord-keeper's son and heir, on 17 Oct. 1729. A fine portrait of Lord North and Grey, by Kneller (now at Waldershare), was engraved in mezzotint by I. Simon. A portrait of Lady North, who died in 1732, was engraved by the same artist, after Kneller.
Lord North's sister, Dudleya North (1675–1712), born at her father's house in Leicester Fields in 1675, was distinguished for her learning. While still a young girl she begged leave to join her brothers in studying Latin and Greek with their private tutor at Kirtling, and subsequently she mastered Hebrew and some other eastern languages. Her valuable collection of oriental literature was, together with the remainder of her books, presented by her brother to the parochial library of Rougham in Norfolk, built and founded by her uncle, Roger North, for the use, under certain restrictions, of the clergy of the district. This gift included a Hebrew bible, bound in blue turkey morocco, with silver clasps, which she had been in the habit of carrying to church. She appears to have been a woman not only of great attainments, but of rare beauty of character, and the depth of the attachment existing between herself and her two brothers receives pleasing illustration from the family correspondence. Having injured her health by over-study, she died, at the age of thirty-seven, of ‘a sedentary distemper,’ at the house of her sister-in-law, Lady North and Grey, in Bond Street (25 April 1712), and was buried at Kirtling (Ballard, Memoirs of Learned Ladies, 1752; materials kindly furnished by Lady Frances Bushby).
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