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Notes 131
Queen Caroline and a noted beauty, called the "Fair Circassian," but
was tartly described in 1756 as a "deaf, short-sighted, loud-spoken,
hackney-headed wife" who "played at cards from morning to night"
(D.N.B.).
ABp Hutton: Matthew Hutton (1693-1758), descendant of the Elizabethan
archbishop of the same name and bishop of Bangor 1743-47,
archbishop of York 1747-57 and briefly of Canterbury 1757-58. His
advancement was smoothed by being selected one of George IPs
"Hanover" chaplains, but he was also close to Newcastle. He had little
opportunity to influence policy within the church since he held the see of
Canterbury slightly under a year and did not reside at Lambeth. For a
memoir of the "respectable Primate" see Nichols's Literary Illustrations,
III, pp. 466-76.
Lord Hardwicke wrote to Newcastle on Monday, 20 March that
Seeker, "for all kinds of Reasons," was the "fittest man" for Canterbury,
and that he hoped "the King will, in his Wisdom, make no
difficulties about it. . . ." (B.L. Add. MS 32,878 fol. 276). Newcastle,
telling Seeker of his nomination, informed him that he had "suggested
nobody else" to George II, and that he had "just Reason to hope" that
"the King will make the Choice I presumed to recommend to
him. . . ." (ibid., fol. 278: 20 March, 1758).
I returned to him a short Note: * T have received the Honour of Y[our]
G[race]'s Letter," Seeker replied to Newcastle, "in the midst of
Company, just going to Dinner with me: and have but a moments Time
to say, that I am quite terrified at the unexpected Contents of it; that I
shall have great Cause to be pleased, If h[is] M[ajesty] thinks of some
worthier Person: that if he should pitch on me, I must endeavour,
through God's help, to appear as little unworthy as I can. . . ." (B.L.
Add. MS 32,878, fol. 280: 20 March, 1758).
FOLIO 49 (1758)
Bishop of St Asaph, Dr Drummond: Robert Hay Drummond
(1711-1776), one of Newcastle's proteges whose pattern of promotion
exemplifies what eighteenth-century political loyalty could bring: bishop
of St. Asaph 1748-61, of Salisbury June-October 1761, and archbishop
of York 1761-76 (Sykes, Church and State, pp. 53-55, 63). Horace Walpole
found him a "sensible worldly man, but much addicted to his bottle."
Seeker, however, described him as "a man of very extraordinary talents
for business of all sorts," who brought the estate of Codrington college
on Barbados "out of a most lamentable condition into a very hopeful