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E. C. & J. BIDDLE, No. 6 SOUTH FIFTH STREET.

Entered according to the Act of Congress, in the year 1836, by EDWARD
C. BIDDLE, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court for the Eastern
District of Pennsylvania.

Printed by T. K. & P. G. Collins.

•176

BIOGRAPHICAL MEMOIR

OF

THE RIGHT HONOURABLE

WILLIAM WINDHAM.

WILLIAM WINDHAM was the descendant of a line of ancestors which is traced to a very remote period. The name is derived from a town in Norfolk, England, generally written Wymondham, but pronounced Windham, at which place the family appears to have been settled as early as the eleventh, or the beginning of the twelfth century, Ailward de Wymondham having been a person of some consideration in the time of Henry the First. His posterity remained there till the middle of the fifteenth century, when one of them, in the reign of Henry the Sixth, purchased considerable estates on the north-east coast of Norfolk, in Felbrigg and its neighbourhood, which, from that time, became their principal residence.

WILLIAM WINDHAM was born in 1750, on the 3d of May (old style), in Norfolk. At seven years of age, young Windham had been placed at Eton, where he remained till he was about sixteen; distinguishing himself, by the vivacity and brilliancy of his talents, among school-fellows of whom many were afterwards highly eminent for their genius and acquirements. He was the envy of the school for the quickness of his progress in study, as well as its acknowledged leader and champion in all athletic sports and youthful frolics. The late Dr. Barnard, then Headmaster, and afterwards Provost of Eton College, used to remark when Fox and Windham had become conspicuous in the senate, that they were the last boys he had ever flogged. Their offence was, that of stealing off together to see a play acted at Windsor. On leaving Eton, in 1766, he was placed in the university of

Glasgow, under the tuition of Dr. Anderson, Professor of Natural History, and the learned Dr. Robert Simson, the editor of Euclid. Here he remained about a year, having by diligent application to study laid the foundation of his profound mathematical acquirements. He was then removed to Oxford, where, in September 1767, he was entered a gentleman-commoner of University college, Sir Robert Chambers being his tutor. While at Oxford, he took so little interest in public affairs, that, it was the standing joke of one of his contemporaries, that "Windham would never know who was prime minister." This disinclination to a political life, added to a modest diffidence in his own talents, led him, at the period which is now spoken of, to reject an offer which, by a youth not more than twenty years of age, might have been considered as a splendid one ;-that of being named secretary to his father's friend, Lord Townshend, who had been appointed Lord Lieutenant of Ireland.

After four years' residence, he left Oxford in 1771. He always retained feelings of gratitude towards Alma Mater, and preserved to the last an intimate acquaintance and correspondence with some of the most distinguished resident members. He did not, however, take his master's degree till 1783. That of doctor of laws was conferred on him in 1793, at the installation of the Duke of Portland. It is related that on this occasion, almost the whole assembly rose from their seats, when he entered the theatre, and received him with acclamations of applause.

After leaving Oxford, he passed some time on the continent. In 1773 a voyage of discovery towards the North-Pole having been projected and placed under the command of the late Lord Mulgrave (then Commodore Phipps), Mr. Windham, with his characteristic ardour, joined as a passenger in the expedition. To his great mortification, however, a continued sea-sickness of an unusually severe and debilitating kind, rendered it necessary for him to be landed on the coast of Norway. Here, accompanied by a faithful servant, who had attended him from his childhood, he passed through a series of adventures and "hair-breadth 'scapes," in which his courage and humanity were conspicuous. The recital of them might agreeably occupy a considerable space in a memoir less limited in its nature and extent than the present.

His earliest essay as a public speaker was occasioned by a call which was made on the country, for a subscription in aid of Government, to be applied towards carrying on the war with our American colonies. It was on the 28th of January 1778, at a meeting of gentlemen of the county of Norfolk, held at Norwich, that Mr. Windham gave the first promise of that eminence which he afterwards attained as an orator and statesman. It will be sufficient in this place to notice, that the part which he took was in opposition to the subscriptions, and to the war itself; and that his friend and his father's friend, the first Marquis Townshend, who had himself proposed the measure of the subscription, bore, in his reply, the warmest testimony to the abilities, knowledge, eloquence, and integrity, of his young antagonist.

Some time before the event which has been last noticed, he had entered himself as an officer in the western battalion of Norfolk militia. In this character, he proved that he inherited the military turn and talents of his father, to whom the very corps in which he served had been so greatly indebted for its formation and discipline. But his useful services, as a militia officer, were soon brought to a close. It happened, on a march, that imprudently, and in a sort of frolic, he joined two brother-officers in riding through a deep rivulet, after which they were obliged to keep on their wet clothes for many hours. The consequences of this adventure were fatal to one of the party, who died soon afterwards; Mr. Windham was thrown into a fever of a most alarming kind, from the effects of which it is certain that his constitution never thoroughly recovered. For many days he kept his bed at Bury St. Edmund's, without any hopes being entertained of his recovery. At length, he was thought to have regained strength enough to undertake a tour on the Continent, which was recommended to him for the re-establishment of his health. He accordingly employed nearly two years of his life in a journey through Switzerland and Italy.

From this tour he returned at a critical moment, in September 1780. The Parliament had just been dissolved, and Sir Harbord Harbord (the late Lord Suffield), who had represented Norwich for more than twenty years, had been obliged to relinquish his hopes there, in consequence of a powerful coalition which his

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