SAVILE, William, Lord Eland (c.1665-1700).

Published in The History of Parliament: the House of Commons 1660-1690, ed. B.D. Henning, 1983
Available from Boydell and Brewer

Constituency

Dates

1689
1690 - 5 Apr. 1695

Family and Education

b. c.1665, 3rd but o. surv. s. of Sir George Savile, 4th Bt. educ. Geneva 1678-81; Christ Church, Oxf. matric. 5 Dec. 1681, aged 16, BA 1685, MA 1688; travelled abroad 1686. m. (1) lic. 24 Nov. 1687, Elizabeth (d.1694), da. and h. of (Sir) Samuel Grimston, 3rd Bt. of Gorhambury, Herts., 1da. d.v.p.; (2) 2 Apr. 1695 (with £20,000), Lady Mary Finch, da. of Daniel Finch, 2nd Earl of Nottingham, 2s. d.v.p. 3da. styled Lord Eland Oct. 1687; suc. fa. as 2nd Mq. of Halifax 5 Apr. 1695.1

Offices Held

Commr. for assessment, Westminster 1689, Yorks. (W. Riding) 1689-90; j.p. and dep. lt. Notts. ?1689-d.

Biography

The author of Advice to a Daughter was not himself very fortunate, as his candid bachelor brother Henry Savile reminded him, in bringing up his sons. Of the three who survived infancy, the eldest was dissolute and rebellious, the youngest cowed. Lord Eland was described by Burnet as an honest man who affected to imitate his father, ‘but the distance was too wide’. Returned to the Convention for Newark on the family interest, Eland was alleged by Anthony Rowe to have differed from his father in voting to agree with the majority of the House of Lords that the throne was not vacant. He was twice sent to the Upper House to ask for conferences, on the declaration of rights on 12 Feb. and on the poll-tax on 30 May. According to the Spanish ambassador, he spoke in his father’s defence on 13 July:

My father has not deserved to be thus trifled with. If you think him culpable, say so. He will at once submit to your verdict. Dismission from court has no terrors for him. He is raised, by the goodness of God, above the necessity of looking to office for the means of supporting his rank.

He embarrassed his father by voting against the Government on the allowance to Princess Anne on 21 Dec., and is said to have attended the committee for the address on the state of the nation. He remained a Tory under William III, refusing the Association, under the influence of his father-in-law Lord Nottingham. He died ‘of an inward fever’ on 31 Aug. 1700, when his peerage became extinct; but the estates were inherited by a cousin, Sir George Savile, 7th Bt., Whig MP for Yorkshire 1728-34.2

Ref Volumes: 1660-1690

Author: E. R. Edwards

Notes

  • 1. Clay, Dugdale’s Vis. Yorks. i. 67-68; Savile Corresp. (Cam. Soc. lxxi), 74, 80.
  • 2. Savile Corresp. 228, 291; Burnet, i. 485; Macaulay, Hist. 1677; Foxcroft, Halifax, ii. 242; R. Morrice, Entering Bk. 2, p. 590; 3, p. 63.