Edward, Third Earl of Sandwich
By CLOSTERMAN.
Full-Length.
(Blue Velvet Coat and Coronation Robes. Standing near a Table, on which is placed his Coronet.)
Born, 1670. Died, 1729.—The eldest son of Edward, second Earl of Sandwich, by Lady Anne Boyle. Born at Burlington House; married in 1691 Lady Elizabeth Wilmot, daughter of the Earl of Rochester, by whom he had one son, and one daughter. He was Master of the Horse to Prince George of Denmark, Doctor of Laws in the University of Oxford, Lord-Lieutenant and Custos-Rotulorum of the County of Huntingdon. The Earl of Sandwich died at Burlington, in Yorkshire, but was buried in the family vault at Barnwell. His union with the unprincipled daughter, of an unprincipled father, was a most unhappy one. Noble affirms that his “eccentric” Countess put him in durance vile in his own house, whether on a plea of insanity, or not, does not appear; but much mystery hangs round her extraordinary proceedings. Tradition still points to an apartment, in the house at Hinchingbrook, as the place of Lord Sandwich’s imprisonment, which for many years bore the name of the “Starved Chamber,” for it is said the cruel wife denied her husband sufficient food, and would allow no one to have access to him. The dates of these transactions are difficult to identify.