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Sir George Savile

1911 Encyclopedia Britannica

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SIR GEORGE SAVILE (1726-1784), English politician, was the only son of Sir George Savile, Bart. (d. 1743), of Rufford, Nottinghamshire, and was born in London on the 18th of July 17 26. He entered the House of Commons as member for Yorkshire in 1759. In general he advocated views of a very liberal character, including measures of relief to Roman Catholics and to Protestant dissenters, and he defended the action of the American colonists. He refused to take office and in 1783 he resigned his seat in parliament. He died unmarried in London on the 10th of January 1784. Horace Walpole says Savile had "a large fortune and a larger mind," and Burke had also a very high opinion of him. He bequeathed Rufford and some of his other estates to his nephew, Richard Lumley (1757-1832), a younger son of Richard Lumley Saunderson, 4th earl of Scarborough (1725-1782). Richard took the additional name of Savile, but when on his brother's death in 1807 he became 6th earl of Scarborough the Savile estates passed to his brother John (1760-1835), afterwards the 7th earl. John's son and heir was John Lumley Savile, 8th earl of Scarborough (1788-1856). The 8th earl was never married, but he left four natural sons, the eldest of whom was John Savile (1818-1896), the diplomatist, who was created Baron Savile of Rufford in 1888. He entered the foreign office in 1841, was British envoy at Dresden and at Berne, and from 1883 to 1888 represented his country in Rome. Although the eldest son, he did not inherit Rufford and his father's other estates until after the deaths of two of his younger brothers. He made a fine collection of pictures and died at Rufford on the 28th of November 1896, when his nephew John Savile Lumley Savile (b. 1854) became the 2nd baron.