Background
Hervey was the son of Lord John Hervey and Mary Lepel.
Hervey was the son of Lord John Hervey and Mary Lepel.
He was the younger brother of Augustus John Hervey (later the 3rd Earl of Bristol), and he was educated at Westminster School and at Corpus Christi, Cambridge.
He joined the British Army in 1755 with the rank of lieutenant and he was posted to North America and he was there when the French were beaten at the Battle of Fort Niagara and Montreal. He served in Canada until 1763. He became a general in 1798.
He is not recorded as ever having spoken in the House of Commons, and appears to have not have enjoyed his time there.
He did not stand in the 1768 election. There is a painting of him that is dated to 1766 that is attributed to Johann Zoffany.
Hervey did not stand for parliament in 1768 although he did attempt to gain a seat in 1775 and 1780 in Bury Saint Edmunds. His mother reported that he was a man with few pretensions and he would be as pleased to walk and eat plainly with water as he did to travel by coach and consume fine meats and wine.
His diaries reveal him to be a keen traveller and a generous philanthropist.
He gave his money to help the poor and debtors and to support schools. An 1803 diary entry records that he paid for locals to be inoculated using cow pox. Hervey died in 1815 and was buried at Ickworth.
12th Parliament of Great Britain]
While in America, he was elected in absentia at a by-election in 1763 as a Member of Parliament (Member of Parliament) for Bury Street Edmunds.
