Transcriber's Note
Every effort has been made to replicate this text asfaithfully as possible, including obsolete and variant spellings and otherinconsistencies. Text that has been changed to correct an obvious erroris noted at the end of this ebook.
THE
LIFE
OF
Mr. Richard Savage.
Who was Condemn'd with Mr. James Gregory, the last Sessions at theOld Baily, for the Murder of Mr. James Sinclair, at Robinson'sCoffee-house at Charing-Cross.
With some very remarkable Circumstances, relating to the Birth andEducation, of that Gentleman, which were never yet made publick.
————Quis talia fando,
Temperet à Lachrymis?
LONDON:
Printed for, and Sold by J. Roberts, at the Oxford-Arms inWarwick-Lane; and by the Booksellers of London and Westminster.1727.
(Price Six Pence.)
THE
LIFE
OF
Mr. Richard Savage.
ERHAPS no History in the World, either ancient or modern, can producean Instance of any one Man's Life fill'd with so many calamitousCircumstances, as That of the unhappy young Gentleman, who is themelancholy Subject of the following Sheets; his Misfortunes may be saidto be begun, if not strictly before he had a Being, yet, before hisBirth; for when his Mother, the late Countess of M——d, was big withChild of him, she publickly declared, That the Infant then in her Womb,did not in the least appertain to her Husband, but to another nobleEarl, upon which a [Pg 4]Trial was commenced in the House of Lords, and myLord M——d, obtained a Divorce, his Lady had her Fortune, which wasvery considerable, paid back to her again, with full Liberty of marryingwhom she pleased, which Liberty she made use of in a very short Time,and my Lord M——d meeting her new Husband, Colonel B——t, in theCourt of Request soon after, wish'd him Joy upon it, and said, hehoped my Lady M——d would make the Colonel a better Wife than she haddone to him. It is very probable that this Divorce gave the Lady a greatdeal of Satisfaction: But her Son, being thus bastardized, could not beborn, as otherwise he would have been, a Lord by Courtesy, and Heir tothe Title of an English Earl, with one of the finest Estates in theKingdom, which was afterwards, for want of Male-Issue, the Occasion ofengaging two eminent Peers[1] in a Duel, in which they had theMisfortune to kill each other. Happy we may say it had been, as well forthese Noblemen, as Mr. Savage himself, if he had either not beenillegitimately begotten, or if that Illegitimacy had been prudentlyconcealed: The being cut off from the certain Inheritance of that greatWealth and Honour, which, nothing, but