James Waldegrave, 1st Earl Waldegrave

British diplomat and peer

United Kingdom legislation

Lord Waldgrave's Estate Act 1691
Act of Parliament
Parliament of England
Long title	An Act to enable Trustees of the Right Honourable James Lord Waldegrave to make Leases, and grant Copyhold Estates, for the Payment of the Arrears of Annuities of Henry Lord Waldegrave his Father, deceased.
Citation	3 Will. & Mar. c. 18
Dates
Royal assent	24 February 1692

James Waldegrave, 1st Earl Waldegrave, KG, PC (1684 – 11 April 1741) was an English diplomat and peer who served as the British ambassador to France from 1730 to 1740.

Life

Waldegrave was the son of the 1st Baron Waldegrave and Henrietta FitzJames, the illegitimate daughter of James II and Arabella Churchill.

Educated in France,^[1] Waldegrave inherited his father's title in 1690, and, on 20 May 1714, he married Mary Webb (who died in childbirth in 1719), a daughter of Sir John Webb, 3rd Baronet and they had three surviving children:

James Waldegrave, 2nd Earl Waldegrave (1715–1763)
John Waldegrave, 3rd Earl Waldegrave (1718–1784)
Lady Henrietta Waldegrave (1717–1753), married firstly, Lord Edward Herbert, a son of the 2nd Marquess of Powis and had issue; married secondly, John Beard (a singer at Covent Garden).

After the death of his wife, he converted from Roman Catholicism (the religion he was brought up in) to Anglicanism to take his seat in the House of Lords. He was briefly a Lord of the Bedchamber in 1723 and again from 1730 to 1741. He was ambassador extraordinary to France in 1725 and Ambassador to Austria from 1727 to 1730. He then succeeded Horatio Walpole as ambassador to France from 1730 to 1740.^[1]

During his ambassadorship to France, he still spent enough time in London to be one of the founding Governors of the new charity there, known as the Foundling Hospital (created in 1739). In 1729, he had been created Earl Waldegrave and on his death in 1741, was succeeded by his eldest son, James.

Sir James inherited Hever Castle in Kent which had remained in the Waldegrave family for 160 years. It was deemed too small for Sir James and he sold it in the early 1700s to Sir William Humfreys, Lord Mayor of London (1714).^[2]

Ancestry

Ancestors of James Waldegrave, 1st Earl Waldegrave

16. Sir Edward Waldegrave, 1st Baronet, of Hever Castle

8. Sir Henry Waldegrave, 2nd Baronet, of Hever Castle

17. Eleanor Lovell

4. Sir Charles Waldegrave, 3rd Baronet, of Hever Castle

18. Edward Paston

9. Anne Paston

19. Margaret Berney

2. Henry Waldegrave, 1st Baron Waldegrave

20. Sir Francis Englefield, 1st Baronet, of Wootton Basset

10. Sir Francis Englefield, 2nd Baronet, of Wootton Basset

21. Jane Browne

5. Helen Englefield

22. William Brooksby

11. Winifred Brooksby

23. Dorothy Wiseman

1. James Waldegrave, 1st Earl Waldegrave

24. James VI of Scotland and I of England

12. Charles I of England

25. Anne of Denmark

6. James II of England

26. Henry IV of France

13. Henrietta Maria of France

27. Marie de' Medici

3. Henrietta FitzJames

28. John Churchill

14. Sir Winston Churchill

29. Sarah Winston

7. Arabella Churchill

30. Sir John Drake

15. Elizabeth Drake

31. The Hon. Eleanor Boteler

References

^ ^a ^b "Waldegrave s.v. James, 1st Earl Waldegrave" . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 28 (11th ed.). 1911. p. 254.
^ "Hever Castle". 20 June 2009.

External links

"Waldegrave, James (1685-1741)" . Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.

Diplomatic posts
Preceded by François-Louis de Pesmes de Saint-Saphorin	British ambassador to Austria 1727–1730	Succeeded by Thomas Robinson
Preceded by The Lord Walpole of Wolterton	British ambassador to France 1730–1740	Succeeded by Anthony Thompson
Honorary titles
Preceded by Robert Honywood	Vice-Admiral of Essex 1735–1741	Vacant Title next held by The Earl of Rochford
Peerage of Great Britain
New creation	Earl Waldegrave 1729–1741	Succeeded by James Waldegrave
Peerage of England
Preceded by Henry Waldegrave	Baron Waldegrave 1690–1741	Succeeded by James Waldegrave