Description
Autograph Letter Signed ‘P.Stanhope’, as Resident at Hamburg, addressed ‘Dear Sir’, responding to his letters by providing some meagre news from Hamburg in return, including the uncertain possibility of a visit from His Danish Majesty, Stanhope himself expecting to receive orders to return to England. 2 pp. 9 x 7 inches, intgegral blank leaf, a few minor defects at centre fold from previous mounting, generally in good condition. Hamburg, 5 April 1759. “I can only inform you, that the Duke of Mecklenburg removed yesterday to Altona, where Mr de Champeane the French minister will follow him tomorrow, having hired Count Rantgau’s house for that purpose.”Philip Stanhope (1732 – 1768) was the illegitimate son of Philip Stanhope, 4th Earl of Chesterfield to whom the famous Letters to His Son were addressed. Born in England, his mother was a French governess, Madelina Elizabeth du Bouchet. Despite his father taking great pains to educate him, and also using his influence to obtain various diplomatic appointments for what he hoped would be a high-flying career, Stanhope was treated with disdain by many, because of his illegitimacy. He was a Member of Parliament for Liskeard and St Germans. The government in 1764 wishing to get possession of his seat, asked him to vacate it, and after some negotiation he agreed, on receiving payment of £1,000, which was half the amount he (or his father) had paid for it. He was also successively Resident at Hamburg (1752-1759), Envoy Extraordinary to the Diet of Ratisbon, (1763), and finally on April 3, 1764 was appointed to the Court of Dresden, Germany.