Background
He married in 1745 Elizabeth (1721–1776), daughter of Edward Keet of Canterbury, said by a contemporary source to have been a barber and a tourist guide.
He married in 1745 Elizabeth (1721–1776), daughter of Edward Keet of Canterbury, said by a contemporary source to have been a barber and a tourist guide.
He was educated at Westminster School, was High Steward of Hertford, and a Governor of the Foundling Hospital of London.
He was known for his irregular life as "the Wicked Earl". However, within a few years he separated from his Countess and lived as a recluse with his mistress, one Mistress Mary Grave of Baldock, for the remaining 30 years of his life at Quickswood, in the parish of Clothall.
C. Price wrote of the liaison in 1771 (Hatfield House archives):
“He lives upstairs … surrounded with old trunks and boxes and scattered books
Well or ill he never quits his chamber, never sees or converses with any but his old Dame, as he calls her, and his physician, who occasionally visits him. The servants are old and rusty like the dwelling.”
Mistress
Grave received over £50,000 in his Will, besides jewellery, silver and furniture removed from Hatfield. The Will was unsuccessfully contested by the 7th Earl of Salisbury, who demolished Quickswood (c 1790).
Mary Grave died on 2 December 1789 at Baldock.
1713-1728: Viscount Cranborne
1728-1780: The Rt Honorary The Sixth Earl of Salisbury.