[Extracts from Irish Building Ventures of the Earl Bishop of Derry, by P J Rankin, published by the Ulster Architectural Heritage Society in 1972 (reprinted 1973).]
The Herveys had lived in Suffolk for several centuries before
Frederick was born there on August 1, 1730, the third son of John
Lord Hervey, famous for his memoirs of the Court of George II,
and Molly Lepel, his wife. Lord Hervey was himself the eldest
surviving son of the first Earl of Bristol, but he did not live
to inherit the title, which in time and in turn passed to Frederick's
elder brothers, George and Augustus. On their successive deaths
without issue, the title passed to Frederick.
Frederick's first years were spent in Suffolk, in the charge of
his grandparents, while his parents were at Court. When he was
eleven, he went to Westminster school. In November 1747 he was
admitted to Corpus Christi college, Cambridge, and in the following
year to Lincoln's Inn. In 1751 he went down from Cambridge without
taking a degree. On August 10, 1752 he married Elizabeth Davers,
daughter of Lady Davers of Rushbrook Hall, near Ickworth in Suffolk,
a marriage and connection which was not welcomed by the Herveys,
there having been much rivalry between the two families over the
borough of Bury St. Edmunds during the lifetime of Elizabeth's
father, Sir Jermyn Davers. However, until the sudden break-up,
in modern parlance, of the marriage in 1782, said to have occurred
while they were out driving at Ickworth, Frederick and his wife
lived together happily enough. After 1782 he and his wife do not
seem to have met again.
In 1754 Frederick decided to abandon the Law and go into the Church.
As a nobleman's son he was entitled to take his M.A. degree without
examination: this he did and in August 1754 was ordained. For
six or seven years he and his wife and family lived at Horringer,
near Bury St. Edmunds, but Frederick does not seem to have performed
any clerical functions.
In the early 1760s he was unsuccessful in his efforts to obtain
ecclesiastical preferment. Thus he hoped at one time to be presented
by the Prime Minister, the Duke of Newcastle, to the deanery of
Norwich, at another to that of Bristol.
But in 1763 he was appointed a chaplain to George III, and in
1765 and 1766 he and his wife and children travelled on the Continent
for the children's education. In 1766 his brother George, 2nd
Earl of Bristol, was appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland by Pitt.
Lord Bristol lost no time in attempting to procure Frederick's
preferment to an Irish bishopric. The richest bishopric likely
to be available was that of Derry. But Dr. Barnard, the Bishop,
although not expected to live very long, showed no signs of ceasing
to do so immediately and the first See to be vacant was that of
Cloyne in County Cork. Frederick was consecrated Bishop of Cloyne
in Christ Church cathedral, Dublin on May 31, 1767.
Not as rich as Derry, the See of Cloyne nevertheless secured Frederick
a place on the bench of Bishops until Derry should be ready for
him. He is not known to have built anything while at Cloyne, but
he did concern himself with the question of the boglands there.
In January 1768 Dr. Barnard did die and Frederick was translated
from Cloyne to Derry in the following month, the claim of a rival
candidate put forward by the new Lord Lieutenant, Lord Townsend,
being over-ruled by the King himself...
Go to Publications or
to Index
... The Bishop could be a difficult employer, leading [Michael
Shanahan, his architect during the building of Downhill] to complain
to him of his 'daily memorandums, some of the most frivolous kind',
and when in charge of the demesne as well as the house to defend
himself against a charge of being a bad farmer with the plea 'I
was not bred a farmer'. He could also on occasion be inconsiderate
towards Mrs. Bradley, his housekeeper, and towards Shanahan's
wife, Anne, who assisted her. Coleraine market was on a Friday
and Anne Shanahan feared that unless the Bishop gave a little
more notice in future before bringing company, 'this whole Country
will hardly produce things good enough, at least as good as your
Lordship would wish, to entertain... with'. Perhaps his Lordship
was mollified on one occasion by the cask of mead she had brewed
for him.
In 1781 Shanahan sent the Bishop an elevation of the west front
of the intended gallery. But as Shanahan wrote: 'I wish my drawings
could keep pace with your Lordships great schemes', and owing
presumably to the Bishop's constant changes of course it was only
in 1783 that the structure of the gallery was nearing completion.
On November 18 in that year Shanahan suggests that 'Rigel', Frances
Reagel, a German historical painter and worker in mosaic, should
paint modern trophies in the ceiling panels. But Shanahan's next
letters describe Reagel's illness, 'a swelling or lump in his
belly', which prevented him from spending more than an hour each
day in the gallery. Pills, drops, spirits of hartshorn and garlick
were prescribed in December 1783 and January 1784 but his health
gave way and he was obliged to leave his work in Ireland unfinished.
Together with the panel under the great stairs, a number of Roman
views in mosaic which were in the house were probably all that
he was able to complete.
A Mr. Loutch was watched by Shanahan in April 1783 putting a ceiling
painting into place in the gallery, but Loutch furnishes an example
of the trouble which so often beset building progress at the house,
that of the failure of the Bishop to make clear the relative hierarchy
of authority of those working for him, when outside craftsmen,
architects and artists were brought to work with those already
engaged. Such trouble occurred later with Columbani and with James
McBlain, and it occurred now with Loutch, Shanahan's wife writing
at one point in 1783 that her husband had left Downhill. Mr. Loutch
had been given authority to draw up plans for the gallery, which
he proceeded to do, and Shanahan would not co-operate with him.
'I have but time to acknowledge the receipt of your Lordships
letter enclosing me Mr. Loutch's elegant plan' wrote Shanahan
sarcastically: 'I have made it a rule never to criticise nor find
fault with the designs of any person whom your Lordship is pleasd
to employ... But this much I beg leave to inform your Lordship
that I am determin'd (to speak in Cellini's style) never to foster
any man's chield but one of my own geting, therefore if yu. design
to put Mr. Loutch's plans into execution please to order himself
or some other person to do it'.
On another occasion Shanahan wrote more resignedly when Loutch's
opinion was followed: 'why should I complain for he who commands
the purse is always the master builder'. As to the actual painting
on the ceiling of the gallery, this was a large copy of Guido's
Aurora. From Thomas Jones's Memoirs we can surmise that it was
the picture painted by William Pars in Rome in the spring of 1779.
Even the gallery was not itself constructed all at the one time
with the result that, although the principal room in the house,
it was nevertheless one of ungainly proportions. It was intended
to house the collection of works of art and pieces of antique
statuary which the Bishop was rapidly amassing. 'I cannot resist
the temptation of being extravagent here especially when it is
with a view of beautifying dear Ireland' he wrote in December
1777 from Rome, and again a year later: 'I am purchasing treasures
for the Down Hill, which I flatter myself will be a Tusculanum'.
But although it extended through two stories in height the gallery
nevertheless afforded little wall space, both longer walls having
a row of windows on both floor levels interspersed with circular
niches. From an early-19th century list of pictures we know that
the gallery contained an organ and about fifty paintings, including
works by Raphael, Titian, Rembrandt, and many lesser artists such
as Richard Wilson's pupil, Thomas Jones, whose Lake of Nemi and
Lake of Albano, which the Bishop had commissioned in Rome, hung
in the gallery and west drawing room respectively...
Go to Publications or
to Index