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Dukes of Bolton

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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The title of duke of Bolton was held in the family of Powlett or Paulet from 1689 to 1794. Charles Powlett, the 1st duke (c. 1625-1699), who became 6th marquess of Winchester on his father's death in 1675, had been member of parliament for Winchester and then for Hampshire from 1660 to 1675. Having supported the claim of William and Mary to the English throne in 1688, he was restored to the privy council and to the office of lord-lieutenant of Hampshire, and was created duke of Bolton in April 1689. An eccentric man, hostile to Halifax and afterwards to Marlborough, he is said to have travelled during 1687 with four coaches and Ioo horsemen, sleeping during the day and giving entertainments at night. He died in February 1699, and was succeeded by his elder son, Charles, 2nd duke of Bolton (1661-1722), who had also been a member of parliament for Hampshire and a supporter of William of Orange. He was lord-lieutenant of Hampshire and of Dorset, a commissioner to arrange the union of England and Scotland; and was twice a lord justice of the kingdom. He was also lord chamberlain of the royal household; governor of the Isle of Wight; and for two short periods was lord-lieutenant of Ireland. His third wife was Henrietta (d. 1730), a natural daughter of James, duke of Monmouth. According to Swift this duke was "a great booby." His eldest son, Charles, 3rd duke of Bolton (1685-1754), was a member of parliament from 1705 to 1717, when he was made a peer as Baron Pawlet of Basing. He filled many of the public offices which had been held by his father, and also attained high rank in the British army. Having displeased Sir Robert Walpole he was deprived of several of his offices in 1733; but some of them were afterwards restored to him, and he raised a regiment for service against the Jacobites in 1745. He was a famous gallant, and married for his second wife the singer, Lavinia Fenton (d. 1760), a lady who had previously been his mistress. He died in August 1754, and was succeeded as 4th duke by his brother Harry ( c. 1690-1759), who had been a member of parliament for forty years, and who followed the late duke as lord-lieutenant of Hampshire. The 4th duke's son, Charles ( c. 1718-1765), who became 5th duke in October 1759, committed suicide in London in July 1765, and was succeeded by his brother Harry ( c. 17191 794), an admiral in the navy, on whose death without sons, in December 1794, the dukedom became extinct. The other family titles descended to a kinsman, George Paulet (1722-1800), who thus became 12th marquess of Winchester. In 1778 Thomas Orde (1746-1807) married Jean Mary (d. 1814), a natural daughter of the 5th duke of Bolton, and this lady inherited Bolton Castle and other properties on the death of the 6th duke. Having taken the additional name of Powlett, Orde was created Baron Bolton in 1797, and the barony has descended to his heirs.