The Earl of Dorset and the Sale of Offices in the Household above Stairs, 1689–97

Abstract

The sale of offices in the Household above Stairs by the Lord Chamberlain and his subordinates during the tenure of the sixth earl of Dorset is examined in its broader context, and allegations of venality and attempts at reform are assessed. New evidence is presented to show that this controversial practice was considered, by the Crown at least, and by Dorset himself, to be a legitimate perquisite of the Lord Chamberlain and other great officers at court as a supplement to their salaries, which had been eroded by the loss of tables of hospitality and other perquisites earlier in the century, and which did not adequately reflect their superior status. Hard-to-come-by records of such transactions reveal the substantial sums of money received by the Lord Chamberlain from his sale of specific offices, and the brokerage fees exacted whenever other offices were sold by the incumbents. Such evidence indicates that the process was carried on routinely, systematically and overtly.

Notes

1 For Charles Sackville's life and career, summarised in this and the following paragraphs, see Harold Love, ‘Sackville, Charles, sixth earl of Dorset and first earl of Middlesex (1643–1706)’, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan. 2008) [henceforth ODNB] [http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/24442]; Brice Harris, Charles Sackville, Sixth Earl of Dorset, Patron and Poet of the Restoration (University of Illinois Press: Urbana, 1940); and my recently completed biography, The Consummate Courtier: Charles Sackville, Sixth Earl of Dorset (1643–1706), Patron, Poet and Politician (2 vols., 2014, unpublished manuscript, accessible at The National Trust, Scotney Castle Consultancy Hub, Lamberhurst, Tunbridge Wells, Kent).

2 The National Archives [hereafter TNA], Public Record Office [PRO], Lord Chamberlain's Papers [LC] 5/201, fols 257, 432; LC 5/202, fol. 139; ‘Chamber Administration: Lord Chamberlain, 1660–1837’, in R. O. Bucholz, ed., Office-Holders in Modern Britain: Volume 11 (Revised), Court Officers, 1660–1837 (London, 2006), pp. 1–8 [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/office-holders/vol11/pp1-8; accessed 11 April 2015]. Compare with Dorset's receipts from the Cofferer's Office and the payments made there, in Kent History and Library Centre [hereafter KHLC], U269, A7/18, Nov. 1689; A7/19, Jan. 1690; A190/10, 6 and 15 Jan. 1690; A720, June 1690; A191/8, 22 Nov. 1690; A191/10, 6 Jan. 1691; A7/23, July 1691.

3 ‘Chamber Administration: Lord Chamberlain, 1660–1837’, in Bucholz, ed, Office-Holders in Modern Britain, pp. 1–8;TNA, PRO, LC 5/201, fol. 450; LC 5/149, fol. 335; KHLC, U269, A7/19, Jan. 1690; A190/10, 3 and 18 Jan. 1691; A7/24, Oct. 1691; and J. M. Beattie, The English Court in the Reign of George I (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1967), p. 188.

4 ‘Chamber Administration: Lord Chamberlain, 1660–1837’, in Bucholz, ed., Office-Holders in Modern Britain, pp. 1–8; Beattie, The English Court, pp. 196–7; TNA, PRO, LC 5/201, fol. 456.

5 KHLC, U269, A7/23, July and August 1691; Edward Carpenter, The Protestant Bishop, Being the Life of Henry Compton, 1632–1733, Bishop of London (London and New York: Longmans, Green, 1956), pp. 170–75.

6 R. O. Bucholz, The Augustan Court: Queen Anne and the Decline of Court Culture (Stanford: Stanford University Press, 1993), p. 315, n. 66.

7 TNA, PRO, LC 5/149, fols 35, 37, 43, 131, 140, 155, 267, 327; LC 5/202, fol. 11; Calendar of Treasury Books, comp. William A. Shaw (32 vols, London: HMSO, 1904–57) [CTB], vol. XII, p. 100; CTB, vol. XV, p. 354; KHLC, U269, A191/10, 10 April 1690; Beattie, The English Court, p. 50; Bucholz, The Augustan Court, pp. 128–9, p. 315, n. 68.

8 For a description of his Whitehall lodgings, see TNA, PRO, LC 5/149, fol. 2; ‘The Treasury and Privy Council Offices', in Montagu H. Cox and G. Topham Forrest, eds, Survey of London: Volume 14, St Margaret, Westminster, Part III: Whitehall II (London, 1931), pp. 68–100 [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/survey-london/vol14/pt3/pp68-100; accessed 7 April 2015]. For a detailed discussion of his lodgings at Whitehall, Hampton Court, Kensington and elsewhere, see Moores, The Consummate Courtier, vol. II, pp. 218–19.

9 TNA, PRO, LC 3/3; LC 5/201, fol. 450; KHLC, U269, O69/1, ‘Cases of the Groom of the Stole and Lord Chamberlain to the Queen and the Lord Chamberlain of the Household’. For a detailed discussion of the furniture acquired by Dorset from the royal palaces, see Moores, The Consummate Courtier, vol. II, pp. 118–29, which contains references to Christopher Rowell, ‘The King's Bed and the Furniture at Knole’, Apollo, Vol. 160, No. 513 (Nov. 2004), pp. 58–65; Gervase Jackson-Stops, ‘A Courtier's Collection, The 6^th Earl of Dorset's Furniture at Knole’, Country Life, vol. 161, no. 4171 (2 June 1977), pp. 1496–7; J. Cornforth, ‘Glow of Gold Brocade: The King's Bed at Knole, Kent’, Country Life, 171, no. 32 (6 August 1987), pp. 64–5; and other relevant books and articles. For descriptions and photographs of many of the pieces on display, see Robert Sackville-West, Knole, National Trust Guide Book (rev. 2006), passim. Inventories of goods from the royal palaces delivered to Dorset's lodgings at the Cockpit and Hampton Court, those from the Queen's apartments at Whitehall after her death, and a list of the furniture in the Queen's rooms at Whitehall, ‘which are hung with mourning’, can be found in KHLC, U269, O69/1, O68 and O65/3. The Lord Chamberlain's official warrants for these furnishings can be found in TNA, PRO, LC 5/149–51 and in LC 2/11 (1), which also contains a formal statement of his claims.

10 TNA, PRO, LC 3/3, ‘Places in the Disposal of the Lord Chamberlain’; LC 5/201, Precedent book, ‘Places in the Lord Chamberlain's Disposal’, 1 May 1693, fol. 181; and 'Certain Profits of the Lord Chamberlain's Place and Casual advantages of the disposeing of these places following', ibid., fol. 450; Worcestershire Record Office [hereafter WRO], Caspar Frederic Henning Papers, 705:366, BA 2252/6, ‘Places in the Lord Chamberlains Disposall’, c. 1688–89, cited in R. O. Bucholz, ‘Venality at Court: Some Preliminary Thoughts on the Sale of Household Office, 1660–1800’ (unpublished manuscript), Appendix III.

11 K. W. Swart, Sale of Offices in the Seventeenth Century (The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff, 1949), pp. 45–67; Bucholz, The Augustan Court, pp. 29, 49–51, 58, 72, 126–7, 284 n. 113; Beattie, The English Court, pp., 164–6; ‘Chronological Survey 1660–1837: The Later Stuart Household, 1660–1714’, in Bucholz, ed., Office-Holders in Modern Britain, pp. lxxvi-xcviii; Bucholz, ‘Venality at Court’, pp. 25–37.

12 J. P. Kenyon, Robert Spencer, Earl of Sunderland, 1641–1702 (Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, 1975), p. 247 and passim; Narcissus Luttrell, A Brief Historical Relation of State Affairs from September 1678 to April 1714 (6 vols. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1857), vol. IV, pp. 62, 280, 281; ‘Chronological Survey 1660–1837: The Later Stuart Household, 1660–1714’, in Bucholz, ed., Office-Holders in Modern Britain, pp. lxxvi–xcviii.

13 Andrew Browning, Thomas Osborne: Earl of Danby and Duke of Leeds, 1631–1712 (3 vols., Glasgow: Jackson, 1944–51), vol. III, pp. 173–6.

14 British Library [hereafter BL], Harley Ms. 7315, fol. 166v.

15 BL, Add. Ms. 2104, fol. 91.

16 BL, Harley Ms. 7315, fol. 180r–81r; BL, Lansdowne Ms. 852, fol. 99.

17 Frank H. Ellis, ‘Sheppard, Sir Fleetwood (1634–1698)’, ODNB; Moores, The Consummate Courtier, vol. I, pp. 144, 150, 171, 298, 327–8, 341, 353, 354–7; vol. II, pp. 9–10, 136–40, 198, 500–03; ‘Presence Chamber: Gentlemen Ushers Daily Waiters 1660–1837’, in Bucholz, ed., Office-Holders in Modern Britain, pp. 42–45; Bucholz, The Augustan Court, pp. 39, 120–21, 319, n. 101; Beattie, The English Court, pp. 39–40, 41.

18 B. D. Henning, ed., The History of Parliament: the House of Commons, 1660–1690 (3 vols., London, 1983), vol. III, pp. 443–4; Evelyn Cruickshanks, Stuart Handley and David W. Hayton, eds, The History of Parliament: the House of Commons, 1690–1715 (5 vols., Cambridge, 2002), vol. V, pp. 519–20; ‘Transport: Knights Harbinger and Masters of the Barges’, in Bucholz, ed., Office-Holders in Modern Britain, pp. 225–227; Moores, The Consummate Courtier, vol. I, pp. 248–9, 264–5, 273, 523, 565; ibid., vol. II, pp. 34, 56, 110, 117, 140–45, 153, 187, 189, 198–9, 205, 239, 241, 327.

19 R. M. Armstrong, ‘Cooling , Richard (d. 1697)’, ODNB; Moores, The Consummate Courtier, vol. II, pp. 135–7, 154, 157, 189, 194–5, 197–8; ‘Chamber Administration: Lord Chamberlain, 1660–1837’, in Bucholz, ed., Office-Holders in Modern Britain, pp. 1–8. The Lord Chamberlain's warrants for this period are arranged chronologically in TNA, PRO, LC 5/149–51.

20 WRO, Henning Papers, 705:366, BA 2252/6, cited in Bucholz, ‘Venality at Court’, Appendix III. It is accompanied by a letter from Colinge to the Earl of Portland, WRO, Henning Papers, 705:366, BA 2252/6(i), endorsed ‘An Account of the Lord Chamberlains Office by Mr. Coling, and a Letter of his, unto the Earle of Portland’.

21 Bucholz, ‘Venality at Court’, pp. 9–12.

22 Ibid., p. 16; Andrew Barclay, ‘William's Court as King’, in Esther Mijers and David Onnekink, eds., Redefining William III: The Impact of the King-Stadholder in International Context (Farnham: Ashgate Publishing, 2007), p. 250; ‘Chronological Survey 1660–1837: The Later Stuart Household, 1660–1714’, in Bucholz, ed., Office-Holders in Modern Britain, pp. lxxvi–xcviii.

23 Bucholz, ‘Venality at Court’, p. 18 and Appendix I, ‘An Account for his Majestie of all the money received for Places by the Lord Steward of his Majesties Household till the 10 of June 1662’; ‘Chronological Survey 1660–1837: The Later Stuart Household, 1660–1714’, in Bucholz, ed., Office-Holders in Modern Britain, pp. 1–8, 36–135; 141–6; 156–76; 178–210; 221–43; 291–7; 377–90; and 392–6.

24 See, for example, KHLC, U269, C121, Bishop of Rochester to Dorset asking for the post of secretary for Brian Fairfax, [14 February 1689], and other letters of request for jobs in C121.

25 Matthew Prior, ‘An Epistle to Fleetwood Shepherd, Esq.’ (c. 1690), in A. R. Waller, ed., Dialogues of the Dead and Other Works in Prose and Verse (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1907), pp. 45–7.

26 Journal of the House of Commons, vol. X, pp. 186, 192; ‘Index of officers: Ba–Be’, in Bucholz, ed., Office-Holders in Modern Britain, pp. 715–58, under ‘Barcroft’. The name is variously spelled ‘Bearecroft’, ‘Barecroft’ and ‘Barcroft’.

27 ‘Index of officers: Ba-Be’, in Bucholz, ed., Office-Holders in Modern Britain, pp. 715–58; John Harold Wilson, A Rake and His Times: George Villiers 2^nd Duke of Buckingham (London: Frederick Muller, 1954), pp. 64–5.

28 Narcissus Luttrell, A Brief Historial Relation of State Affairs from September 1678 to April 1714 (6 vols., Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1857), vol. I, p. 403.

29 The Works of Mr. Thomas Sheppard, Serious and Comical, in Prose and Verse, with his Remains in four volumes compleat (London, 1730), IV, p. 238. Sheppard's medal and chain were part of his livery as Black Rod. Like Dorset, Sheppard was a well-known writer of social and political lampoons. He was also known for his lively exaggeration and premature report of the death of Louis XIV and, previously, for his drunken antics.

30 Jonathan Swift, ‘The New Way of Selling Places at Court’ (London, 1712) in The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, D.D., Dean of St. Patrick's Dublin (19 vols., London, 1812), vol. XVIII, pp. 106–07.

31 Historical Manuscripts Commission, Report on the Manuscripts of the Duke of Buccleuch and Queensberry (London: HMSO, 1903) [HMC Buccleuch], II, pt. ii, p. 368.

32 TNA, PRO, LC3/3, ‘Places in the Disposal of the Lord Chamberlain’.

33 HMC Buccleugh, II, pt. ii, p. 368.

34 Ibid.

35 TNA, PRO, LC 5/149, fol. 298; LC 3/32, fol. 64; LC 3/57, fol. 28v; LC 3/3.

36 ‘Dependent Sub-departments: House and Wardrobe Keepers 1660–1837’, in Bucholz, ed., Office-Holders in Modern Britain, pp. 119–35; TNA, PRO, LC 3/30, fol. 35v.

37 ‘Chronological Survey 1660–1837: The Later Stuart Household, 1660–1714’, in Bucholz, ed., Office-Holders in Modern Britain, pp. lxxvi–xcviii; Bucholz, Augustan Court, p. 27.

38 Moores, Consummate Courtier, vol. II, Chapter 11, ‘Patronage: Jobs for the Boys’, pp. 131–201, and passim. Compare with Bucholz, Augustan Court, Chapter 4, ‘Personnel’, pp. 85–114, and passim.

39 Moores, The Consummate Courtier, vol. II, pp. 196–9 and notes. For the total number of Dorset's appointees, see below, n. 53.

40 Samuel Pepys, The Diary of Samuel Pepys, Robert Latham and William Matthews, eds. (11 vols., London and Berkeley: Harper Collins and University of California Press, 2000), vol. I, p. 193.

41 Ibid., vol. VIII, p. 369.

42 The meaning here is ‘grasping’. See the OED Second Edition on CD-ROM (Oxford University, 2009). For his reputation, see R. M. Armstrong, ‘Cooling, Richard (d. 1697)’, ODNB.

43 Swart, Sale of Offices, pp. 45–67; Bucholz, ‘Venality at Court’, pp. 25–37; Bucholz, The Augustan Court, pp. 29, 49–51, 72, 126–7, 150–1, 284, n. 13; Beattie, The English Court, pp. 164–6; ‘Chronological Survey 1660–1837: The Later Stuart Household, 1660–1714’, in Bucholz, ed., Office-Holders in Modern Britain, pp. lxxvi–xcviii; ‘Introduction: IV, Remuneration and Value of Office’, in Bucholz, ed., Office-Holders in Modern Britain, pp. liii–lxiii.

44 Bucholz, Augustan Court, pp. 23–5; ‘Chronological Survey 1660–1837: The Later Stuart Household, 1660–1714’, in Bucholz, ed., Office-Holders in Modern Britain, pp. lxxvi–xcviii.

45 Ibid.; Barclay, ‘William's Court as King’, pp. 250–52; TNA, PRO, LC 5/149, fol. 273; LC 3/32, Rough Establishment, 1688–95; LC 5/201, fols 199–224; LC 3/3, and below.

46 LC 5/149, fol. 229; LC 5/201, fols 199–224; LC 3/3; LC 2 /13, Servants to attend the Coronation, 5 April 1689; Samuel Pegge, Curalia: or an Historical Account of Some Branches of the Royal Household (1791), pt. III, p. 62; Beattie, English Court, pp. 36–7.

47 LC 3/53, signed manual warrant to the Treasurer of the Chamber, 25 Jan. 1693; LC 5/201, fols 214–15, 234–5, 196 and 450.

48 Moores, The Consummate Courtier, vol. II, pp. 164–7.

49 Bucholz, ‘Venality at Court’, pp. 28–9.

50 Ibid., pp. 29–37; Swart, Sale of Offices, pp. 45–67; Bucholz, The Augustan Court, pp. 29, 49–51, 58, 72, 126–7, 284 n. 113; Beattie, The English Court, pp., 164–6; ‘Chronological Survey 1660–1837: The Later Stuart Household, 1660–1714’, in Bucholz, ed., Office-Holders in Modern Britain, pp. lxxvi-xcviii.

51 Moores, The Consummate Courtier, vol. II, Chapter 11, pp. 131–200.

52 Bucholz, The Augustan Court, Chapter IV, pp. 85–114; Bucholz, ‘Venality at Court’, pp. 20–25; Beattie, The English Court, Chapter V, pp. 132–80.

53 This figure has been compiled from ‘Chronological Survey 1660–1837: The Later Stuart Household, 1660–1714’, in Bucholz, ed., Office-Holders in Modern Britain, pp. 1–8 and 36–135; 141–6; 156–76; 178–210; 221–43; 251–78; 291–7; 377–90; and 392–6.

54 TNA, PRO, LC 5/201, fol. 450; G. E. Aylmer, The King's Servants: The Civil Service of Charles I, 1625–1642 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1961), p. 237.

55 ‘Introduction: IV, Remuneration and Value of Office’, in Bucholz, ed., Office-Holders in Modern Britain, pp. liii-lxiii; Bucholz, Augustan Court, p. 127; Beattie, English Court, pp. 165–6; 209; and below.

56 WRO, Henning Papers, 705:366, BA 2252/6(i), Colinge to Bentinck, endorsed ‘An Account of the Lord Chamberlains Office by Mr. Coling, and a Letter of his, unto the Earle of Portland’. Although the letter is undated, internal evidence points to a date between 11 December 1688, when James fled the capital, and 13 February 1689, when William and Mary accepted the Crown. See Bucholz, ‘Venality at Court’, p. 47, n. xix.

57 TNA, PRO, LC 3/31, fols 69–70.

58 TNA, PRO, LC 5/192, fol. 11; LC5/150, fol. 366. The italics are mine.

59 TNA, PRO, LC 3/32, fol. 74; ‘Index of officers: G’, in Bucholz, ed., Office-Holders in Modern Britain, pp. 1013–1064.

60 G. E. Aylmer, The Crown's Servants: Government and the Civil Service under Charles II, pp. 87, 89, 91. The Lord Chamberlain's fine (50 guineas) in this case was roughly equal to the Messenger's annual salary (£45) and around a third of the office's purchase price (£150), according to Colinge's ‘List’, WRO, Henning Papers, BA 2252/6; ‘Guard Chamber: Messengers 1660–1837’, in Bucholz, ed., Office-Holders in Modern Britain, pp. 91–111; and Dorset's letter to the Bishop of London (above, note 58).

61 Dorset's personal financial accounts can be found in KHLC, U269, A7/1–46, and his bills and vouchers in ibid., A186–222. Those for the period of his tenure of office, Feb. 1689 to April 1697, are in ibid., A7/15–28 and A189/11–198/1. These contain references to the receipt from the Cofferer's office of his combined salary as Lord Chamberlain (ancient fee of £100 plus board-wages of £1,100) and the payments his agent made there and the receipt from the Great Wardrobe of his livery payment of £66 16s. See, for example, ibid., A7/18, Nov. 1689; A7/19, January 1690; A190/10, 6 and 15 Jan. 1690; A7/20, June 1690; A191/8, 22 Nov. 1690; A191/10, 6 Jan. 1691; and A7/23, July 1691.

62 Columbia University, ‘The Booke of Entrys’, Montgomery Ms. 72, fol. 26; Beattie, English Court, pp. 120–21.

63 Beattie, English Court, pp. 164–5.

64 Ibid., pp. 189–97; Bucholz, Augustan Court, pp. 134–5; Swart, Sale of Offices, pp. 54–5. See also TNA, PRO, LC 9/376, pt. 1, ‘Book of fees for the late eighteenth century’.

65 Columbia University, Montgomery Ms. 72, fol. 26.

66 For example, the Earl of Dorset paid £1 2s. 6d. for Thomas Sackville's ‘admission fee’ as Yeoman of the Removing Wardrobe (KHLC, U269, A189/2). See also, Beattie, English Court, p. 192; Bucholz, Augustan Court, pp. 134–5.

67 See KHLC, U269, A211; ibid., A198/1, April 1697, for his debts of nearly £7,600 (£906,400 in modern currency using the historic standard of living value and £20,800,000 using the economic status value: MeasuringWorth.com, ‘Purchasing Power of British Pounds from 1270 to Present’). £12,000 was the amount referred to in Dorset's accounts in July 1697, when a number of outstanding bills were paid, and £199 was given to Mr Lowen, the steward, to pay the bills pertaining to Copthall, one of his country estates, ‘out of the £12,000’: see KHLC, U269, A198/4, 23 July 1697. The sum of £12,500 was referred to in a House of Commons debate on Crown grants on 28 January 1698, when a motion was passed that Dorset's banker, Sir Francis Child, should explain the use for which he had received £12,500 ‘that is charged as paid to him on last year's account’, which was said to be ‘the money the Lord Chamberlain Dorset received for his staff’, See note 70.

68 For Dorset's landed income, see ibid., A8/3, ‘An Account of the yearly rents of the several estates of the Earl of Dorset together with the taxes and other yearly disbursements out of the same’, c. 1706.

69 These expenses are discussed in detail in Moores, Consummate Courtier, vol. II, Chapter 14, ‘The Expense of Office’, pp. 264–82.

70 ‘William III: January 1698’, in Calendar of State Papers Domestic: William III, 1698, Edward Bateson, ed. (London, 1933), pp. 1–63 [http://www.british-history.ac.uk/cal-state-papers/domestic/will-mary/1698/pp1-63; accessed 15 April 2015].

71 Beattie, The English Court, pp. 184 and 209.

72 Letters Illustrative of the Reign of William III, from 1696–1708, G. P. R. James, ed. (3 vols., London, 1841), vol. I, p. 205, Vernon to Shrewsbury, 9 Feb. 1697.

73 Historical Manuscripts Commission, Calendar of the Manuscripts of the Marquis of Bath Preserved at Longleat, Wiltshire, vol. III, Prior Papers, 1685–1701 (Hereford: HMSO, 1908) [HMC Bath], p. 199, Earl of Dorset to Matthew Prior, 6/16 March 1698.

74 Love, ‘Sackville, Charles, sixth earl of Dorset’, ODNB, gives no evidence for his conclusion that ‘Dorset was often dilatory in carrying out his duties as lord chamberlain, and there was relief on both sides when on 19 April 1697 he surrendered the position to Sunderland.’ For evidence to the contrary, see my section on the Lord Chamberlainship in Moores, Consummate Courtier, vol. II, especially Chapter 13, ‘Rights and Responsibilities’, pp. 215–64.

75 For Dorset's wish to resign, and the likelihood that William wished him to stay on, see Letters Illustrative of the Reign of William III, vol. I, p. 205; ibid, vol. II, p. 298; Prior, Dedication to Poems on Several Occasions, ed. A. R. Waller (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1905), p. xviii; HMC Bath, III, p. 199, Earl of Dorset to Matthew Prior, 6/16 March 1698.

76 Kenyon, Sunderland, Chapter Eight, ‘The Minister Behind the Curtain’, especially, p. 289; William Coxe, ed., Private and Original Correspondence of Charles Talbot, Duke of Shrewsbury: with King William, the Leaders of the Whig Party, and Other Distinguished Statesmen (London, 1821), pp. 479–80; Henry Horwitz, Parliament, Policy, and Politics in the Reign of William III (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1977), pp. 193–4.

77 Horwitz, Parliament, Policy, and Politics, p. 194 and n. 125; Kenyon, Sunderland, p. 290.

78 ‘William III: July 1698’, in Calendar of State Papers Domestic: William III, 1698, pp. 334–69; Horwitz, Parliament, Policy, and Politics, p. 236.

79 Letters Illustrative of the Reign of William III, vol. II, p. 296, Vernon to Shrewbury, 30 May 1699.

80 Bucholz, ‘Venality at Court’, p. 23.

81 Ibid., p. 38.

82 Compiled from TNA, PRO, LC 3/3, ‘Places in the Disposal of the Lord Chamberlain’; ibid., LC5/202, Precedent book, ‘Places in the Lord Chamberlain's Disposal’, 1 May 1693, fol. 181; ‘Certain Profits of the Lord Chamberlain's Place and Casual advantages of the disposeing of these places following’, ibid., fol. 450; WRO, Henning Papers, 705:366, BA2252/6, ‘Places in the Lord Chamberlains Disposall’; and references to miscellaneous appointments in TNA, PRO, LC 5/150, fol. 238; LC 3/32, fol. 60; LC 3/32, fol. 16; LC5/150, fol. 41. I have also included places not on the lists but mentioned in Bucholz, ed., Office-Holders in Modern Britain: Volume 11 (Revised), ‘Court Officers, 1660–1837’, and Moores, Consummate Courtier, vol. II, pp. 180, 183 and 184.

83 Some of these officers, such those belonging to the dependent sub-department of the Ceremonies, were traditionally in the gift of the Crown and their appointments embodied in letters patent under the great seal, the Master and his assistant being held by the same family for generations. They are included because Dorset or his Secretary claimed them in their lists of ‘Places in the Lord Chamberlain's Disposal’, and they were subject to his orders, and because the Marshal's petition asking the King for the reversion of the place to be granted to his son is among Dorset's papers: KHLC, U269, O72/1; Moores, Consummate Courtier, vol. II, pp. 158–60, 242–3.

84 Although Dorset claimed the right of appointment of the King's personal physicians and apothecaries , in practice, the posts were nominated or vetted by the King because of the highly personal nature of their services. Dorset's recommendations were, nevertheless, as always, clearly valued and implemented. Moores, Consummate Courtier, vol. II, pp. 161–7.

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Teri Moores

Teri Moores is a retired teacher, historian and MP's caseworker. A contributor to the Europa Biographical Dictionary of British Women, she has recently completed a social, cultural and political biography of Charles Sackville, entitled The Consummate Courtier: Charles Sackville, Sixth Earl of Dorset (1643–1706), Patron, Poet and Politician, which can be accessed at the National Trust, Scotney Castle Consultancy Hub, Lamberhurst, Kent.