Philip Meadowes

Sir Philip Meadowes or Meadows (1672–1757) was an English politician and diplomat.^[1]

Early life

He was baptised on 21 May 1672, the second son of Sir Philip Meadows of Chattisham, Suffolk, and his wife Constance Lucy. He studied at Trinity College, Oxford, matriculating 1689, and at Lincoln's Inn, which he entered in 1690.^[1]

Family and career

Sir Philip's daughter, Mary, was maid of honour to Queen Caroline.

Meadowes entered parliament as member for Tregony in 1698.^[1] He was a commissioner of excise from 1698 to 1700. He was on 2 July 1700 appointed Knight Marshal of the king's household, and was knighted by William III on 23 December 1700 at Hampton Court.^[2] His position as Knight Marshal was bought from Lord Jersey.^[3] He returned to parliament as member for Truro in 1702, and was elected again for Tregony in 1705.^[1]

In December 1706 Meadowes succeeded James Stanhope as envoy to Holland. He was in 1707 despatched on a special mission to Emperor Joseph I, and during his absence was appointed controller of army accounts; in November 1708 he presented a memorial to the Emperor in favour of the Protestants of Silesia. He was succeeded by Lord Raby in August 1709.^[2]

Sir Philip's daughter, Mary, was a maid of honour to Queen Caroline at the court of King George II. Caroline had died in 1737, the year her "character" was described in "affectionate and humorous correspondence" between Mary's second cousin, attorney Philip Meadows, Lord of the Manor of Diss (1719-1783),^[4] and his "future brother-in-law" Richard Taylor (1719-1763).^{[5][6][7][8][9][10]} Philip Meadows' father, Philip Meadows (1679-1752), was Sheriff of Norwich in 1724 and Mayor of Norwich in 1734.^[11]

Sir Philip married Dorothy Boscawen, sister of Hugh Boscawen, 1st Viscount Falmouth. The wife of Sir Philip's nephew - the Hon. Admiral Edward Boscawen - was the Hon. Mrs Boscawen (1719-1805), a prominent member of the Blue Stockings Society.^[12] Also a member of the society was Sir Leonard Smelt who, like Meadows, had been a member of the court of King George II in 1720 when Meadows held the position of 'Comptroller of the Accounts of the Army' and Smelt held the position of 'Commissioner for Taking, Stating and Examining Debts Due to the Army'.^[13] In 1781, Smelt became Deputy Ranger of Richmond Park following the death that year of Sir Philip's son, Philip, who had held that position.^[14]

Sir Philip and Lady Meadows had three sons and five daughters, including:

• Sidney (1699–1792)
• Philip (1708–1781) about whose wife, Lady Frances Meadows, (1711-1795), Horace Walpole wrote scathingly, describing her as having "long been mad" towards the end of her life.^[15] According to poetry written in the 1730s by Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, Lady Frances Meadows - sister of Evelyn Pierrepont, 2nd Duke of Kingston-upon-Hull - had rejected Hon. John Spencer's hand in marriage, instead marrying Philip in 1734. Mary Delany, a friend of the Meadows family and a favourite of King George III, found the poetry "pretty".^[16][17]
• Mary Meadows (1713-43)^[9]

Sir Philip later resided at Richmond, Surrey. He died at Brompton on 5 December 1757.^[2]

Notes

1. "Meadowes, Philip (1672-1757), of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, Mdx". History of Parliament Online. Retrieved 23 May 2017.
2. Lee, Sidney, ed. (1894). "Meadows, Philip" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 37. London: Smith, Elder & Co.
3. Venning, Timothy. "Meadows, Sir Philip". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/18479. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
4. "Meadows Taylor; 1755–1842; attorney; Diss, Norfolk". Norfolk Record Office, The Archive Centre, Martineau Lane, Norwich, Norfolk NR1 2DQ. 2023. Retrieved 4 July 2023. Son of Richard Taylor (1719-1763), a Norwich merchant, and grandson of John Taylor (1694-1761), unitarian divine and founder of the Octagon Chapel at Norwich. Acquired the Manor House in Mount Street in 1786 following the death of his uncle Philip Meadows, also an attorney. Succeeded by his son Thomas Lombe Taylor (1802–1878), though Meadows' sister Miss Mary Taylor (1795–1888) enjoyed part of the family property for life.
5. "Letter and copy letter from Richard Taylor of Norwich (signs R. Spider) to Philip Meadows at Mr Prentice's, attorney, Botesdale, 1737, with copy verses by Axford on the Norwich Guild Day, aldermanic election etc.; character of Queen Caroline with poems on her death, poem in praise of weaving, and fragments of 18th century edition of the 'Peterborough Chronicle'". Norfolk Record Office. 1737. Retrieved 12 December 2023.
6. Taylor, E. (1840). The Suffolk Bartholomeans. William Pickering, London. p. 117. Retrieved 13 December 2022.
7. Debrett, John (1836). "Charles Herbert Pierrepont, Earl Manvers". Debrett's Peerage of England, Scotland, and Ireland. Debretts. p. 141. ...Sir Philip Meadows (d.1718), son of Daniel Meadows (d.1659), leaving one son – Sir Philip Meadows (d.1757) (whose) issue (included) daughter, Mary (d.1743) – Maid of honour to Queen Caroline
8. "Ancestry of Kate Middleton". wargs.com. Retrieved 6 March 2016. Daniel Meadows (1577–1651/59) m. Elizabeth Smith
   .Sir Philip Medows m. Constance Lucy
    .Sir Philip Medows m. Dorothy Boscawen
     .Philip Medows m. Frances Pierrepont
      .CHARLES MEDOWS PIERREPONT, 1st Earl MANVERS (1737–1816)
       .NB: This document also shows Kate Middleton's descent from Daniel Meadows/Medows (died 1651/59)
9. "Charlotte, Countess of Drogheda". The Twickenham Museum. Retrieved 3 June 2023. Sidney Meadows' sister, Mary (1713-43), became a Maid of Honour to Queen Caroline at the Court of George II. Mrs Eliza Haywood cast her in the role of Arilla in 'The Secret History of the present Intrigues of the Court of Carimania'. In real life she was celebrated by Pope 'for her prudence' and Mrs Hayward was added to the pantheon of dullness in The Dunciad Variorum (book II, 149 et seq).
10. "Prentices of Palsgrave, England". PrenticeNet. 2023. Retrieved 12 December 2023. John Prentice, Gentleman, was baptised on 1 Oct 1665 and was buried on 21 Nov 1737. He married Hannah Reeve of Cookley on 17 Feb 1687/88. She died in 1731. John, his brother and his children were ardent Protestant Dissenters and played a major part in establishing a Dissenter's Chapel in Palgrave. Since John and Hannah's children were not baptised in the Church of England, the dates were not recorded. Children: William Prentice, Grocer, d. Starston, Norfolk 1765. He m. Susanna. . . . . . . . [15] Thomas Prentice, perhaps b. c. 1687-1692 and d. 1741 in Bungay. . . . . . . . . [16] John Prentice, Gentleman, of Rickinghall Inferior, Suffolk. He was an Attorney at Law living for part of his life in London. He was born in 1685 and was buried in Palgrave on 6 Feb 1754. He married Elizabeth who died in 1723 and then Susan Hubberd (a widow whose maiden name was Denny) in Botesdale on 1730. He had four children. . . . . . . . . [17]
11. Taylor, Philip Meadows (1886). A Memoir of the Family of Taylor of Norwich. Privately Printed. p. 2-4. Retrieved 19 May 2023.
12. Eger, Elizabeth. "Boscawen, Frances Evelyn (1719–1805)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/47078. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
13. The Present State of the British Court... Oxford University. 1720. p. 93. Retrieved 9 June 2023.
14. "Smelt, Leonard" . Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900.
15. Walpole, Horace (1858). Doran, Dr (ed.). -Last Journal of the Reign of King George the Third - Journals of Horace Walpole. Richard Bentley. p. 260. Retrieved 4 June 2023. From the Year 1771-1783 Horace Walpole Dr. Doran (John) ... was given, after the Duchess, to the second son of the Duke's only sister Lady Frances Meadows, who had long been mad, to his heirs, then to the other nephews and their ...
16. Grundy, I. (1999). Lady Mary Wortley Montagu. Oxford University Press. p. 294, 311, 314. Retrieved 6 June 2023.
17. Grundy, I (2023). Lady Mary Wortley Montagu: Comet of the Enlightenment -1732—August 1736: As Aunt and Mother: 'A Mother only knows a Mother's fondness'. Oxford University Press. Retrieved 8 June 2023. in real life [the character of] Melanthus was Philip Meadows, who pursued Lady Frances Pierrepont [and would later marry her]...Mary Pendarves (later Delany), who was sitting just behind Meadows, ...

External links

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Lee, Sidney, ed. (1894). "Meadows, Philip". Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 37. London: Smith, Elder & Co.