Stanhope
Collier's New Encyclopedia (1921)
the name of a noble English family. JAMES, 1st Earl Stanhope; born in Paris, France, in 1673. He entered the army, served as Brigadier-General under the Earl of Peterborough at the capture of Barcelona in 1705, was appointed Commander-in-Chief of the British forces in Spain, and in 1708 took Port Mahon. After the accession of George I. he devoted himself to politics, and became the favorite minister of that monarch. He died in London, Feb. 5, 1721. CHARLES, the 3d earl; grandson of the preceding; born in London, England, Aug. 3, 1753; was celebrated chiefly as an inventor, a patron of science, and the avowed advocate of republicanism. His chief inventions were an arithmetical machine and a new printing press, which bears his name. He_died in London, Dec. 15, 1816. PHILIP HENRY, 5th earl, grandson of the preceding; born in Walmer, Kent, Jan. 30, 1805. He filled various official positions in the ministry of Sir Robert Peel, but he was best known under his title of Lord Mahon, as the author of a "History of the Succession War in Spain" (1832), a "Life of Belisarius," a "History of England from the Peace of Utrecht to the Peace of Versailles, 1713- 1783" (1854), a "Life of Pitt" (1861), and a "History of the Reign of Queen Anne" (1870). He was the founder of the Stanhope prize for a historical essay in connection with Oxford University. He died in Bournemouth, Hampshire, Dec. 24, 1875. LADY HESTER LUCY, an English traveler; daughter of the 3d Earl Stanhope, born in Chevening, England, Mar. 12, 1776. For many years she resided with her uncle, William Pitt, and when he died in 1806 she received a government pension of $6,000. In 1810 she left England, visited various places in the East, and finally settled in Syria. She established herself in the deserted convent of Mar Elias in the Lebanon, adopted the style and dress of an Arab chief, and by her kindness and masculine energy exercised great influence over the Bedouins. Her "Memoirs" were published in 1845-1846. She died in Mar Elias, Syria, June 23, 1839.
What Has Changed in the Last Century
When Collier's compiled this in 1921 the Stanhopes were still a living noble line; the earldom died with James Richard Stanhope, the 7th Earl, in 1967, and with him the title became extinct. Chevening, the Kent seat where Lady Hester Stanhope was born in 1776, passed to a trust and has served since 1980 as the official country residence of the British Foreign Secretary. The 3rd Earl's "new printing press, which bears his name" was the first successful all-iron hand press and is now a prized museum and fine-press object rather than working equipment, while his arithmetical and logic machines are treated as early ancestors of mechanical computing. The 5th Earl's histories have been superseded as narrative scholarship, but the Stanhope Essay Prize he founded at Oxford is still awarded.
Written for this edition, 2026.