Thomas Pulteney

“ PULTENEY or POULTNEY, Sir JOHN de (d. 1349) , mayor of London, was son of Adam Neale de Clipston of Weston, Sussex, and grandson of Hugh de Pulteney, of Pulteney, Poutenei, or Pultonheith, in Misterton, Leicestershire. His father succeeded to the estate at Pulteney in 1308, and had married Maud de Napton. John de Pulteney was mainpernor for certain merchants on 9 Nov. ”

“ The ‘Craftsman’ is an enduring monument of his wit and literary ability. According to Horace Walpole (note to Hanbury Williams's Works, i. 132) , Pulteney had a hand in ‘Mist's’ and ‘Fog's’ journals.
It is, however, as an orator that he is chiefly to be remembered. Ample evidence supports Mr. Lecky's conclusion that Pulteney was ‘probably the most graceful and brilliant speaker in the House of Commons in the interval between the withdrawal of St. John and the appearance of Pitt’ (History, &c., i. 374) . ”

“ Pulteney had, on the formation of the new ministry, resolved to accept the king's offer of a peerage, but he delayed his withdrawal to the House of Lords in the twofold hope of being able to leaven the ministry with a larger proportion of opposition members, and of pushing through the commons certain measures—a place bill and some bribery bills with which his name had been associated (Newton, Life, pp. 53–69) . After bringing into the government a few only of those for whom he wished to find places, he, on 13 July 1742, became Earl of Bath. ”

“ She died on 22 April 1763, aged 64, and was buried in the south cloister of Westminster Abbey on 29 April. Three sons and three daughters died early in life. To two of these, Margaret and Charlotte, Ambrose Philips addressed odes. Frances Pulteney, their fourth and youngest daughter and eventually sole heiress, married William Johnstone. She succeeded to the great Bath estates in 1767, and her husband took the name of Pulteney. ”

“ Pulteney, William, Earl of Bath, English statesman; in 1705 entered Parliament zealous in the Whig interest; was for years the friend and colleague of Walpole, but afterwards, from a slight, became his bitterest enemy and most formidable opponent; he contributed a good deal to his fall, but, unable to take his place, contented himself with a peerage, his popularity being gone (1682-1764) .
Pultowa (43) , a town in Southern Russia, 90 m. by rail SW. of Kharkoff, on an affluent of the Dnieper; manufactures leather and tobacco ”

“ Pulteney’s eloquence was keen and incisive, sparkling with vivacity and with allusions drawn from the literature of his own country and of Rome. Of business he was never fond, and the loss in 1734 of his trusted friend John Merrill, who had supplied the qualities which he lacked, was feelingly lamented by him in a letter to Swift. His chief weakness was a passion for money. Lord Bath has left no trace of the possession of practical statesmanship. ”

“ Both Walpole and Pulteney bid for his support. Hervey finally broke with Pulteney, and was rewarded by Walpole with the office of vice-chamberlain of the household on 7 May 1730, being admitted to the privy council on the following day. Early in 1731 appeared an anonymous pamphlet entitled 'Sedition and Defamation display'd.'&c, containing a dedication 'to the patrons of the Craftsman.' in which both Pulteney and Bolingbroke were severely attacked. In answer to this Pulteney wrote 'A Proper Reply to a late Scurrilous Libel,' &c., referring to Hervey in the most offensive terms. ”

“ In 1745 he was elected to a minor fellowship, was promoted in the next year to be ‘socius major,’ and resided in college until the end of 1758. On the advice and encouragement of Pulteney he was educated for the church, but that statesman forgot his promises, and rendered Francklin no assistance in life. He was for some time an usher in his old school, and on 27 June 1750 was elected to the honourable, if not profitable, post of Greek professor at Cambridge. ”

“ Lord Carteret, feeling he has the strength of the closet and the confidence and favour of the King, whilst he is making his court by foreign {59} politics, [17] hates and detests Mr. Pulteney for all the trouble he gives him in pursuing his points at home; and knowing that the moment Mr. Pulteney goes into the House of Lords, he will become an absolute nullity, he is ready to feed the exorbitant appetite of his demands with any morsels it craves for at present, provided in return he can gain that one point of Mr. Pulteney's going into the House of Lords. ”

“ It was evident to Putney, for it was indeed he, that Imogene had not yet recognized him as being one of her abductors, for what other reason could possibly have induced her to surrender herself into his hands unless it was that she still deemed him to be the character he had so basely assumed—a stanch American patriot, and the thought seemed to give infinite pleasure to the ruffian. ”

“ Then Pulteney's career as a great Prime-minister is not beginning? No—not beginning—never to begin. By one of the strangest strokes of fate the events which closed the career of Walpole closed the career of Pulteney too. Yet but a few months, and Pulteney ceases as completely as Walpole has done to move the world of politics. The battle is over and the rival leaders have both fallen. One monument might suffice for both, like that for Wolfe and Montcalm at Quebec. Pulteney was offered a peerage, an offer which he had contemptuously rejected twice before. ”

“ He already saw that his power lay with the people, and that it was based not merely on his genius and eloquence, but on a faith in his public spirit and scrupulous integrity. His virtues were his credentials, and it was necessary that they should be conspicuous. Pulteney and St. John had wielded greater Parliamentary power, yet Pulteney and St. John had perished from want of character. Character he saw was the one necessary thing, but character must be known to be appreciated. Pitt was perhaps the first of those statesmen who sedulously imbue the public with a knowledge of their merit. ”

“ Pulteney’s resentment was not confined to his speeches in parliament. With Bolingbroke he set on foot in December 1726 the well-known periodical called the Craftsman, and in its pages the minister was incessantly denounced for many years. Lord Hervey published an attack on the Craftsman, and Pulteney, either openly or behind the person of Amhurst, its editor, replied to the attack. ”

“ It appeared (after the first) as a rule on Saturdays, and was republished, with a dedication to the people of England, in 1731–7, in 14 vols. 12mo. Its conductor was Nicolas Amherst [q. v.] ; but Bolingbroke and Pulteney were its mainstays, together with Daniel Pulteney and a pseudonymous ‘Walter Raleigh,’ whom Pulteney himself was never able to identify. Bishop Newton (Life, pp. 127–9) is responsible for the information that Pulteney's papers were those signed ‘C.,’ or when written conjointly with Amherst, ‘C. A.’ ”

“ This circumstance of itself would have touched any young man of the least natural feeling, to say nothing of policy; for, if the king died, there was an end of the question—the prince would be king himself. But he was now in such a temper that he would not listen to the royal proposal; and the next day, the 22nd of February, 1737, Pulteney made his motion in the House of Commons for an address beseeching the king to settle upon the prince a hundred thousand pounds a year, and promising that the House would enable him effectually to do so. ”

“ Your school-fellow, Lord Pulteney,— [Only child of the Right Hon. William Pulteney, Earl of Bath. He died before his father.] —set out last week for Holland, and will, I believe, be at Leipsig soon after this letter: you will take care to be extremely civil to him, and to do him any service that you can while you stay there; let him know that I wrote to you to do so. As being older, he should know more than you; in that case, take pains to get up to him; but if he does not, take care not to let him feel his inferiority. He will find it out of himself without your endeavors ”

“ Pulteney should go into the House of Lords, his great credit lying in the other House: and I remember my father's action when he returned from Court, and told me what he had done; 'I have turned the key of the closet upon him,' making that motion with his hand."
Braybrooke.
Audley End, March 18. 1850.
PORTRAITS OF ULRICH OF HUTTEN.
It is pleasant to see that an answer to a query can sometimes do more than satisfy a doubt, by accidentally touching an accordant note which awakens a responsive feeling. I am much pleased that my scanty information was acceptable to "R.G." ”

“ Pulteney’s gentleman, who betrayed to him the letter he was carrying from his master to Lord Wilmington. As this was soon after a treaty between them, Lord Wilmington was much shocked when Sir Robert reproached him with it, and continued so steady for the future, that when the famous motion was made against that Minister, he went to vote in the House of Lords with a blister on his head, after having been confined to his bed for some days with a fever.
[155] She always affected, if anybody was present, to act (and he liked she should) the humble ignorant wife, that never meddled with politics. ”

“ He concluded with declaring he liked the Bill, and did not mean to oppose it.
Lord Bath [112] is so known a character, that it is almost needless to draw him. Who does not know that Mr. Pulteney was the great rival of Sir Robert Walpole, whose power he so long opposed, at last overturned, and was undone with it? Who does not [119] know that his virtue failed the moment his inveteracy was gratified? Who does not know that all the patriot’s private vices, which his party would not see while he led them, were exposed, and, if possible, magnified by them the instant he deserted them? ”

“ Pulteney; and though it is a ballad, I will cite the stanza I remember from it, because it will show you the idea of the able men in opposition, and the leaders of the popular party in those days. They had not an idea of assuming that the jury put it upon another and much better ground. The stanza I allude to is this:—
"'For Sir Philip well knows,
That his innuendos
Will serve him no longer,
In verse or in prose;
For twelve honest men have decided the cause,
Who are judges of fact, though not judges of laws.'
"It was the admission of the whole of that party ”

“ A political crisis bursts like a tornado, and bewilders the strongest characters. Both rare and happy are the men who can on such occasions take counsel with themselves, and meet the storm with presence of mind. Pulteney had, perhaps, become enervated with a long period of merely negative opposition. Glover also asserts that his hand was forced by Lyttelton who was secretly offering terms to Walpole, and that these, though tendered by the Prince of Wales's Secretary, Walpole treated with disdain. ”

“ The attempt made in 1734 to renew the clamour against the pretended designs of the government broke down, and other manœuvres of the opposition met with no better success. Among these was a proposal for the repeal of the Septennial Act, which was supported by Pulteney, although he confessed himself to have favoured the act at the time of its introduction (ib. p. 131) . Personal differences among the leaders doubtless accounted for the opposition's failure. ‘Pulteney and Lord Bolingbroke,’ wrote Lord Hervey, ‘hated one another; Lord Carteret and Pulteney were jealous of one another ”

“ He afterwards set up in business for himself in St. Lawrence Pountney Lane, where he occupied a portion of the ancient mansion variously known as ‘Manor of the Rose’ and Poultney's Inn, the house having formerly belonged to Sir John Poultney [see Pulteney or Poulteney, Sir John de] . ”

“ Bredon,” said Brinkman in correction. “You have not been to America? The anecdote there is in its first youth; the anecdotes mostly in their extreme old age.”
“There is a pleasant dryness about American humour,” objected Pulteney. “But I confess that I miss piquancy in it.”
“Like Virginian tobacco?” suggested Bredon, and was rewarded by a savage kick from Angela under the table.
“The anecdote, however,” pursued Mr. Pulteney, “is the enemy of conversation. With its appearance, the shadow of egotism falls over our conviviality. ”

“ Cotterell is coming on the tenth. How can we tell her that the men won't let her speak?"
"There was never anything like this in Putney church before," groaned Mrs. Elder Knox. "It was Andrew McKittrick put them up to it. I always said that man would make trouble here yet, ever since he moved to Putney from Danbridge. I've talked and argued with Thomas until I'm dumb, but he is as set as a rock." ”

“ His alliance with Walpole continued apparently unbroken until 1721, when Walpole became first lord of the treasury. Then, to his profound mortification, Pulteney was not offered office. Walpole told him that ‘a peerage had been obtained for him,’ but this he brusquely declined. On the discovery of the so-called Atterbury plot in 1722, he was chosen to move an address of congratulation to the king, and acted as chairman of the select committee which drew up the report on the inquiry (ib. ii. 42–3) . ”

“ The Putnams settled early in Salem. John, the first emigrant, came from Buckinghamshire, in 1634, with three sons, Thomas, Nathaniel, and John. Some of the name exercised a fatal influence during the reign of witchcraft. Israel was already an old man when he left his plow in the furrow to gallop to Cambridge, having been born in 1718. At twenty-one he removed to [Pg 218] Pomfret, Connecticut. Putnam was prompt, resolute, and incapable of fear—full of fight, and always ready. Washington, who did not judge badly, thought him the only fit man to make an assault on Boston. ”