Hendrik van Nassau Ouderkerk, 1st Earl of Grantham

Henry de Nassau d'Auverquerque, 1st Earl of Grantham

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Henry de Nassau, Lord d'Auverquerque, 1st Earl of Grantham, PC (1673 – December 5, 1754), a British peer and courtier, was a member of the House of Orange-Nassau and second cousin once removed to King William III of England. He inherited the lordship of Ouwerkerk (known in English as Overkirk and in French as Auverquerque) in Zeeland, and was a count of the Holy Roman Empire.

He was born in The Hague to the Dutch general Henry de Nassau d'Auverquerque (called "Lord Overkirk" by the English) and his wife Frances van Aerssen, and baptised there 30 May 1673. On 12 January 1697, he married Lady Henrietta Butler, daughter of the Earl of Ossory and sister of the 2nd Duke of Ormonde. In 1698, during his father's lifetime, he was created 1st Earl of Grantham, Viscount Boston, and Baron Alford by William III.

Despite Grantham's marriage to the sister of one of most notorious participants in the 1715 Jacobite rising, George I appointed him Lord Chamberlain to the household of the Princess of Wales in 1717, and Grantham retained his position when the Prince of Wales succeeded as King George II in 1727 and the Princess became Queen Caroline. He remained her Lord Chamberlain until her death in 1737.

Grantham later involved himself in a project to create an orphanage for abandoned children in London, the first of its kind in the nation. The charity became known as the Foundling Hospital and received its royal charter on 17 October 1739. Lord Grantham was one of its founding Governors.

Lord and Lady Grantham had five children, of whom only two daughters survived to adulthood. The elder, Lady Frances, married Captain (later Lieutenant-Colonel) William Elliot; the younger, Lady Henrietta, wed William Clavering-Cowper, 2nd Earl Cowper.

Grantham owned a house in Albemarle Street, Westminster that is now part of the premises of the Royal Institution, and a country house in Chiswick, called Grove Park.

Lord Grantham died on 5 December 1754 and was buried a week later at St James's Church, Piccadilly, Westminster.

Family

Henry de Nassau d'Auverquerque married on 12 January 1697 his cousin Lady Henrietta Butler (died 11 October 1724), youngest daughter of Thomas Butler, Earl of Ossory by his wife Emilia van Nassau (a sister of Lord Overkirk), and sister of James Butler, 2nd Duke of Ormonde and Charles Butler, Earl of Arran, and had five children, of whom only two daughters survived into adulthood:

Henry (27 October 1697 – 19 June 1718), styled Viscount Boston from 24 December 1698.

Thomas (born abt 1700, died 27 April 1730), styled Viscount Boston, apparently unmarried.

Lady Frances de Nassau d'Auverquerque (born 1700s, d. 5 April 1772), who married 4 Jun 1737 St Paul's Benet Wharf (against her father's wishes) Captain (later Lieutenant-Colonel) William Elliot of Wells. Their only child died young.

Emilia Mary (born 1700s, died aged 10)

Lady Henrietta de Nassau d'Auverquerque (bapt 17 October 1712, died 23 September 1747), who married 27 September 1732 William Clavering-Cowper, 2nd Earl Cowper 1709–1764). Her son the 3rd Earl Cowper (1738–1789) became his uncle Lord Grantham's heir general after his aunt Lady Frances Eliot's death in 1772, and was created a Prince of the Holy Roman Empire in 1778 (which title expired in 1905 with the death of the last Earl Cowper). The current representative of this line is Lord Lucas (b. 1951), who is also Lord Dingwall in the Peerage of Scotland, and a co-heir to the Barony Butler since 1905.