The Creevey Papers
Thomas Creevey to Eleanor Creevey, 20 January 1810
“Saturday, 20th Jan.—. . . Left Brighton with Grattan: dined at the Piazza: went at night to Brooks’s:
found Whitbread there in consequence of
my letter: various others, all civil to the greatest degree. Morpeth, Lord R.
Spencer, Fitzpatrick,
Sefton, all greeted me most cordially,
and then I had a long prose with Whitbread.
“Lord Grey
continues his insolence, but the others are all courting him
prodigiously—Holland, the
Duke of Bedford and Grenville, and with the latter he has unreserved
conversations upon all subjects. The amendment is
Grenville’s drawing and
Whitbread quite approves it. It is no great things,
but it will do. . . .
Richard Fitzpatrick (1748-1813)
English military officer, politician, and poet allied with Fox and Sheridan in
Parliament; he was secretary of state for war (1783, 1806) and author of
Dorinda, a Town Eclogue (1775).
Henry Richard Fox, third baron Holland (1773-1840)
Whig politician and literary patron; Holland House was for many years the meeting place
for reform-minded politicians and writers. He also published translations from the Spanish
and Italian;
Memoirs of the Whig Party was published in 1852.
Henry Grattan (1746-1820)
Irish statesman and patriot; as MP for Dublin he supported Catholic emancipation and
opposed the Union.
William Wyndham Grenville, baron Grenville (1759-1834)
Educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, he was a moderate Whig MP, foreign secretary
(1791-1801), and leader and first lord of the treasury in the “All the Talents” ministry
(1806-1807). He was chancellor of Oxford University (1810).
Charles Grey, second earl Grey (1764-1845)
Whig statesman and lover of the Duchess of Devonshire; the second son of the first earl
(d. 1807), he was prime minister (1831-34).
George Howard, sixth earl of Carlisle (1773-1848)
Son of the fifth earl (d. 1825); he was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, wrote
for the
Anti-Jacobin, and was MP for Morpeth (1795-1806) and
Cumberland (1806-28).
Lord Robert Spencer (1747-1831)
Of Woolbeding in Sussex; the youngest son of the second Duke of Marlborough, he was Whig
MP for Woodstock (1768-71, 1818-20), Oxford City (1771-90), Wareham (1790-99), and
Tavistock (1802-07). He was a friend of Charles James Fox.
Samuel Whitbread (1764-1815)
The son of the brewer Samuel Whitbread (1720-96); he was a Whig MP for Bedford, involved
with the reorganization of Drury Lane after the fire of 1809; its financial difficulties
led him to suicide.
