Fitzroy, Augustus Henry, 3rd Duke of Grafton (1735 -1811)

Augustus Henry Fitzroy, 3rd Duke of Grafton, was the second but eldest surviving son of Augustus Fitzroy, third son of Charles, 2nd Duke of Grafton, and Elizabeth, daughter of William Cosby, Governor of New York, and younger son of Alexander Cosby, of Stradbally Hall, Queen's County in Ireland. Educated privately at Hackney under Dr Newcombe, at Westminster School, and at Peterhouse, Cambridge, he took his M.A. in 1753. He was elected Member of Parliament for St Edmunds 1756 1757, he was First Lord of the Treasury and Prime Minister 1766 1770 and Lord Privy Seal in 1771, and was made a Knight of the Garter in 1769. He married, firstly, 29 January 1756, Anne Liddell, daughter and sole heir of Henry, Lord Ravensworth. They were divorced in 1769, and he married secondly, 24 June 1769, Elizabeth, daughter of the Reverend Sir Richard Wrottesley 7th Baronet. A unitarian, and a collector of first editions of the classics, duplicates from his library were sold by Leigh & Sotheby 18 December 1811. The more valuable part was sold at auction anonymously by R. H. Evans 6 June 1815, the catalogue being called `A catalogue of a most elegant collection constituting the rare and virtù part of the extensive library of a nobleman. With preface by G. and W. Nicol.' Further books were sold by the eighth Duke in 1921.