98 



Biographical Memoirs of Eminent Persons. 



[J ULY, 



n the 13th of April. He died early on the 

 morning of the 16th. His Lordship married 

 in the year 1820, Miss Cantes, but left no 

 issue. He was, consequently, succeeded by 

 his brother, Camden Gray, the present lord, 

 an officer in the guards. 



LARIVE. 



M Larive, the oldest, and one of the most 

 celebrated of the French tragedians, was born 

 at Rochelle, in the year 1749. He made his 

 first theatrical appearance at Lyons, under 

 the management of Madame Lobreau. In 

 17T1 he went to Paris, where he appeared 

 at the Theatre Franpois, under the patronage 

 of the celebrated Mademoselle Clairon. That 

 lady regarded him as her prottgti ; but the 

 public, indignant at the unqualified panegy- 

 ric which she heaped upon him, estimated 

 him below his real value. However, his fine 

 person, and his powers of declamation, soon 

 commanded applause ; and, for many years, 

 he stood upon a level with Le Kain. 



At the commencement of the French re- 

 volution, many of the players, it is well 

 known, were amongst the most active of the 

 insurgents. Larive was not one of the ex- 

 ceptions ; he appeared at the head of the 

 electors of Paris, before the Constituent 

 Assembly, with an address of adherence to 

 the new system, and was admitted to the 

 honours of the sitting. On the 12th of Fe- 

 bruary, 1 790, he made a present to the Mar- 

 quess de la Fayette, of the chain which the 

 Chevalier Bayard used to wear round his 

 neck. 



Larive quitted the theatre rather earlier 

 than is usual with first-rate actors. By some 

 his retirement was ascribed to the severe cri- 

 ticisms of Geoffroi ; but it may more rea- 

 sonably be assigned to the superior merits of 

 Talma, who supplanted him in the estima- 

 tion of the public, and successfully introduced 

 on the French stage. Larive afterwards re- 

 paired to Naples, on the invitation of Joseph 

 Buonaparte, by whom he was liberally re- 

 warded. He was the author of Pyramus and 

 Thisbe, Reflections on the Theatrical Art, 

 a Course of Declamation, <fec. He died 

 lately atMontignon. 



LORD FERRARS. 



The Right Hon. Robert Shirley, seventh 

 Earl Ferrars, Viscount Tamworth, Lord of 

 the Honour of Chartley, fourth Baronet of 

 England, and F.A.S., was born on the 7th of 

 September, 1756. The family of Shirley is 

 descended from Sewallis, whose residence, at 

 the time of the conquest, was at Ellington, 

 in the county of Warwick. His descendant, 

 James of Ettington, first assumed the name 

 of Shirley in the time of Henry III. Lord 

 Ferrars was the eighteenth in lineal descent 

 from prince Thomas of Woodstock, youngest 

 son of king Edward the Third, whose arms 

 bis lordship was entitled to quarter, as well 

 as those of the intermediate illustrious houses 

 of Bourchier and Devereux, Earls of Essex. 



His Lordship's mother was Catherine, 

 daughter of Rowland Cotton, of Etwald, in 

 the county of Derby, Esq. He succeeded his 

 father, Robert, the sixth earl, on the 18th of 

 April, 1787; having previously married on 

 the 13th of March, 1778, Elizabeth Prentise, 

 by whom (who died in 1799) he had issue, 

 Robert Sewallis, Viscount Tamworth, born 

 in 1778, and died in 1824, without issne. 

 The Viscount had married, in 1800, Sophia 

 Caroline, daughter of Nathaniel Curzon, 

 Lord Searsdale. 



Earl Ferrars married, secondly, in 1799, 

 Elizabeth, daughter of the late Wrightson 

 Mundy, of Marsheaton, in Derbyshire. His 

 Lordship died at Hastings on the 23d of May, 

 and was succeeded in his titles and estates 

 by the Hon. Washington Shirley, his only 

 brother, now the eighth earl. 



THE DUKE OF GORDON. 

 The territory of Gordon, in Berwickshire, 

 anciently of great extent, was granted during 

 the reign of David I. of Scotland, to an An- 

 glo-Norman settler, who assumed from it the 

 name of Gordon. In the reign of Robert I., 

 Sir Adam de Gordon obtained a grant of the 

 barony of Strathbogie, in the county of Atholl. 

 His great great-grandson, Sir Adam Gordon 

 of Huntley, was killed at Hamildon, in thfc 

 year 1402, leaving an only daughter and 

 heir, married to Alexander Seaton, second 

 son of Sir William Seaton, of Seaton. These 

 were the ancestors of the Dukes of Gordon. 

 Alexander Seaton, Lord of Gordon, assumed 

 the surname of Gordon, and was created in 

 1449-50, Earl of Huntley. George, the sixth 

 earl, and sixth in lineal descent from Alex- 

 ander, was, in 1599, created Marquess of 

 Huntley. His great Grandson, the fourth 

 Marquess, was created Duke of Gordon, in 

 1684. His great grandson, 



Alexander, fourth Duke of Gordon, Mar- 

 quess and Earl of Huntley, and Earl of 

 Enzie, Viscount Inverness, Baron Gordon of 

 Strathbogie, Lord of Badenacn, Lochabar, 

 Strathaven, Achindown, Bulmore, Gartley, 

 and Kincardine ; Scots honours ; Premier 

 Marquess in Scotland, Earl of Norwich, 

 Baron Beauchamp, of Bletshoe ; Baron Mor- 

 daunt, of Turvey, county Bedford ; and Baron 

 Gordon, of Huntley, county Gloucester, in 

 the Peerage of the United Kingdom of Great 

 Britain and Ireland; K.T.,F.R.S.; Keeper 

 of the Great Seal of Scotland ; Chancellor 

 of King's College, Aberdeen; Lord Lieu- 

 tenant, county Aberdeen ; and Hereditary 

 Keeper of Inverness Castle, was born in the 

 year 1743. He succeeded his father, Cosmo 

 George, the third duke, in 1752 ; and he 

 married in 1767, Jane, daughter of Sir Wil- 

 liam Maxwell, Bart., by whom he had issue : 

 1st, George, Marquess of Huntley, the 

 present duke, born in 1770 ; 2d, Charlotte, 

 married in 1789, Charles Lennox, fourth 

 Duke of Richmond; 3d, Madelina, mar- 

 ried in 1789, Sir Robert Sinclair, Bart., and 

 secondly, in 1 805, Charles Palmer, of Lock- 



