Philip Stanhope - Son of Lord Chesterfield
Biography
Birth: 1732
Death: 1768
Natural son of Phillip Dormer Stanhope (d. 1773), 4th Earl of Chesterfield, and Madelina Elizabeth du Bouchet. Married (1767) to Eugenia Peters (d. 1783), with whom he had been romantically involved since the 1750s, and who had already borne him two sons, Charles and Phillip, in 1761 and 1763 respectively.
Stanhope held a number of minor diplomatic posts, and was even a Member of Parliment for St. Germans and Liskeard until 1764. From 1763 until his death he was stationed at the Court of Dresden.
Life with James Boswell
Boswell had a letter to Stanhope from Alexander Burnett, and called on him in Dresden on October 8, 1764. He was not at home, but on the next day sent Boswell his compliments and offered to take him to Court at noon. Stanhope arrived at twelve “very politely, and took me in his coach. Scarcely had we gone two yards when he called out, ‘Stop!’ and catching hold of me, said, ‘You can't go to Court.’ In short the court of Saxony was in mourning, and I had not a black coat”.
On October 10, Boswell dined at Stanhope's, writing, among other things, "[h]e is little and young, but much of a gentleman. He abused the King of Prussia. He talked lightly of the Saxon Court, and said he tired sadly at Dresden. This was not quite the formed man. But I liked him the better."1
Desperate to visit the actual Court of Saxony, but with no black coat to wear, Boswell managed to convince Stanhope to introduce him as an English officer, as uniformed officer's only needed to put a black crape around their sleeve to be considered to be in mourning. Consequently, on October 12, 1764, Stanhope presented Boswell, posing as an officer in Lord Loudoun's regiment, at the Court. On that same day he dined with Stanhope, in the company of "Mr. Mackenzie, a relation of the Seaforth family"and "the Elector's Master of Horse" (who doubted the authenticity of Boswell's uniform). In the end, Boswell wrote "I really love Stanhope. He and I were might well together. We agreed to renew our acquaintance in London", which of course they didn't. Stanhope stayed abroad for most (or all?) of the rest of his life, and died in 1768, then only in his mid-30s.
Notes
Note 1: The editors of Boswell on the Grand Tour I, 1763-1764 note, that "Boswell must mean that his conduct was "young", for Stanhope was his elder by eight years".
Recommended literature
Philip Stanhope's main claim to fame is the letters sent to him by his father, the 4th Earl of Chesterfield, over a period of about 20 years. They were published in the 1770s by his widow Eugenia Stanhope, titled Letters to His Son, and have been reprinted numerous times since then. A lot of copies are usually available via the AbeBooks used books search engine.
Some of the letters are even included in The Letters of Phillip Dormer Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield, vol 3, which is available online at Questia Online Library.
Related links
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