LYTTELTON, Edward, Lord Lyttelton, keeper of the great seal in the reign of Charles I. was eminent for his probity and moderation at the commencement of that monarch’s disputes with his subjects. Without forfeiting his fidelity to the king, he preserved the esteem of the parliament until the year 1644, when he was made colonel of a regiment in the king’s army at York. He died in 1645. Besides several of his speeches, which have been printed, he wrote reports in the Common Pleas and Exchequer, printed at London in 1683, in folio; several arguments and discourses; and various other things.

Lyttelton, George Lord, eldest son of Sir Thomas Lyttelton, descended from the great Judge Lyttelton, was born in 1700, at seven months. The midwife, supposing him to be dead, threw him carelessly into the cradle, where, had not some signs of life been noticed by one of the attendants, he might never have recovered. He received [7:13:616]the elements of his education at Eton school, where he showed an early inclination to poetry. His pastorals and some other light pieces were originally written in that seminary of learning. He was removed from thence to the university of Oxford, where he pursued his classical studies with uncommon avidity, and sketched the plan of his Persian Letters ; a work which afterwards procured him great reputation, not only from the elegance of the language in which the letters were composed, but from the excellent observations they contained on the manners of mankind.

In the year 1728, he set out on the tour of Europe; and, upon his arrival at Paris, accidentally became acquainted with the Honourable Mr Poyntz, then our minister at the court of Versailles, who was so much struck with the extraordinary capacity of the young traveller, that he invited him to his house, and employed him in many political negociations, which he executed with great judgment and fidelity.

Mr Lyttelton’s excellent conduct whilst on his travels was a lesson of instruction to the rest of his countrymen. Instead of lounging away his hours at the coffee-houses frequented by the English, and adopting the fashionable follies and vices of France and Italy, his time was passed alternately in his library and in the society of men of rank and literature. In this early part of his life, he wrote a poetical epistle to Dr Ayscough, and another to Mr Pope, both evincing singular taste and correctness.

After continuing a considerable time at Paris with Mr Poyntz, who, to use his own words, behaved like a second father to him, he proceeded to Lyons and Geneva; and thence went to Turin, where he was honoured with flattering marks of attention by his Sardinian majesty. He then visited Milan, Venice, and Genoa, and finally established himself at Rome, where he applied himself closely to the study of the fine arts, and, even in that celebrated metropolis, was allowed to be a perfect judge of painting, sculpture, and architecture.

During his continuance abroad, he constantly corresponded with his father, Sir Thomas Lyttelton. Several of his letters yet remain, and place his filial affection in a very distinguished light. He soon afterwards returned to his native country, and being elected representative for the burgh of Ockhampton in Devonshire, he conducted himself so much to the satisfaction of his constituents, that they several times re-elected him for the same place, without putting him to the least expense.

About this period, he received great marks of friendship from Frederick prince of Wales, and was, in the year 1737, appointed principal secretary to his royal highness, and continued in the strictest intimacy with him till the time of his death. In the year 1742, he married Lucy, the daughter of Mr Hugh Fortescue of Filleigh, in the county of Devon; a lady whose exemplary conduct, and uniform practice of religion and virtue, established his conjugal happiness upon the most solid basis.

In 1744, he was appointed one of the lords commissioners of the Treasury; and, during his continuance in that station, constantly exerted his influence in rewarding merit and ability. He was the friend and patron of Fielding, Thomson, Mallet, Young, Hammond, West, Pope, and Voltaire. On the death of Thomson, who left his affairs in a very embarrassed condition, Mr Lyttelton took that poet’s sister under his protection. He revised the tragedy of Coriolanus, to which that writer had not put the last hand; and brought it out at the theatre-royal, Covent Garden, with a prologue of his own composition, in which he so affectingly lamented the loss of that delightful bard, that not only Mr Quin, who spoke the lines, but almost the whole audience, spontaneously burst into tears.

In the beginning of the year 1746, his felicity was interrupted by the loss of his wife, who died in the twenty-ninth year of her age, leaving him a son and daughter. He wrote a monody on her death, which will be remembered whilst conjugal affection and a taste for poetry exist in this country.

His masterly observations on the conversion and apostleship of St Paul were written at the desire ofMr Gilbert West, in consequence of Mr Lyttelton’s asserting, that besides all the proofs of the Christian religion which might be drawn from the prophecies of the Old Testament, from the necessary connection it has with the whole system of the Jewish religion, from the miracles of Christ, and from the evidence given of his resurrection by all the other apostles, he thought the conversion of St Paul alone, duly considered, was of itself a demonstration sufficient to prove that Christianity was a divine revelation. Mr West was struck with the thought, and assured his friend, that so compendious a proof would be of great use to convince those unbelievers who would not attend to a longer series of arguments; and time has shown that he was not mistaken in his conjecture, as the tract is esteemed one of the best defences of Christianity which has hitherto been published.

In 1754, he resigned his office of lord of the Treasury, and was made cofferer to his majesty’s household, and sworn a member of the privy council; previously to which, he married a second time, Elizabeth, daughter of Fieldmarshal Sir Robert Rich, a lady whose indiscreet conduct gave him great uneasiness, and from whom he was separated, by mutual consent, a few years after his marriage.

After being appointed chancellor, and under-treasurer of the court of exchequer, he was, by letters-patent dated the 19th of November 1757 (31 Geo. II.), created a peer of Great Britain, by the style and title of Lord Lyttelton, •baron of Frankley, in the county of Worcester. His speeches on the Scotch and mutiny bills in the year 1747, on the Jewish bill in 1753, and on the privilege of parliament in 1763, showed sound judgment, powerful eloquence, and inflexible integrity. During the last ten years he lived chiefly in retirement, in the continual exercise of all the virtues which ennoble private life. His last work was Dialogues of the Dead, in which the morality of Fénélon and the spirit of Fontenelle are happily united.

In the middle of July 1773, he was suddenly seized with an inflammation of the bowels, which terminated in his death, at his seat near Hagley, on the 22d of that month. A complete collection of his works was published after his decease, by his nephew, Mr George Ayscough.