Family and Education

b. Aug. 1729, 3rd s. of William, 3rd Duke of Devonshire, by Catherine, da. of John Hoskins of Oxted, Surr., and bro. of Lords George Augustus and John Cavendish. unm.

Offices Held

Ensign 1 Ft. Gds. 1749; lt. 2 Ft. Gds. 1752; lt.-col. 29 Ft. 1755; capt. 1 Ft. Gds. and lt.-col. 1756; col. 1758; col. 67 Ft. 1759-60; 34 Ft. 1760-97; maj.-gen. 1761; lt.-gen. 1770; gen. 1782; f.m. 1796.

Biography

Lord Frederick went out to Germany in April 1757 as aide-de-camp to the Duke of Cumberland; served on the expedition to St. Cas in September 1758, was wounded and taken prisoner, and afterwards exchanged; and from 1760 to 1763 served under Granby in Germany. He belonged to the group of officers politically connected with Cumberland. Horace Walpole wrote that he was ‘by far the most agreeable and possessed the most useful sense of the whole family’.1 But he was of less consequence in Parliament than either of his brothers, and only one speech by him is recorded: 24 Feb. 1780, on a bill to regulate the admission of honorary freemen in corporation boroughs.2

He died, ‘immensely rich’,3 on 21 Oct. 1803.

Ref Volumes: 1754-1790

Author: John Brooke

Notes

• 1. Mems. Geo. III, i. 17.
• 2. Almon, xvii. 168.
• 3. Gent. Mag. 1803, p. 995.