The Lord Cornbury Scandal The Politics of Reputation in British The America Lord Cornbury Scandal Patricia U. Bonomi Published for the Omohundro Institute of Early American History and Culture, Williamsburg, Virginia, by the University of North Carolina Press, Chapel Hill and London The © 1998 The University of North Carolina Press All rights reserved Omohundro Manufactured in the United States of America Institute of Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Bonomi, Patricia U. Early American The Lord Cornbury scandal: the politics of reputation in British History and Culture America / Patricia U. Bonomi. p. cm. is sponsored jointly Includes bibliographical references (p. ) and index. by the College of ISBN 0-8078-2413-5 (cloth: alk. paper) ISBN O-8078-4869-7 (pbk.: alk. paper) William and Mary 1. Clarendon, Edward Hyde, Earl of, 1661-1723. 2. Political and the Colonial corruption—New York (State)—History— 18th century. 3. Political corruption—New Jersey—History—18th century. Williamsburg 4. Great Britain—Colonies—America—Administration—Case Foundation. studies. 5. New York (State)—Politics and government—To 1775. 6. New Jersey—Politics and government—To 1775. On November 15, 7. Political culture—New York (State)—History—18th century. 1996, the Institute 8. Political culture—New Jersey—History— 18th century. I. Omohundro Institute of Early American History & Culture. adopted the present II. Title. name in honor of F122.B655 1998 974.7'02—dc21 97-4O318 a bequest from CIP Malvern H. The paper in this book meets the guidelines for permanence and Omohundro, Jr. durability of the Committee on Production Guidelines for Book Longevity of the Council on Library Resources. This volume received indirect support from an unrestricted book publication grant awarded to the Institute by the L. J. Skaggs Foundation of Oakland, California. cloth O6 O5 04 O3 O2 5 4 3 21 paper O6 05 04 6 5 43 THIS BOOK WAS DIGITALLY PRINTED. For Lydia This page intentionally left blank Calomniez! Calomniez! II en restera toujours quelque chose ("Go ahead and slander! Some of it always sticks"). — Beaumarchais, The Barber of Seville This page intentionally left blank Acknowledgments Many individuals and institutions contributed to the devel- opment of this book. A fellowship from the National Endowment for the Humanities and a grant from the New Jersey Historical Commission pro- vided funds for research and writing. The staff of the New-York Histori- cal Society, which owns the portrait that first prompted my interest in Lord Cornbury, has been generous in its support; I owe particular thanks to Stewart Desmond, Betsy Gotbaum, Margaret Heilbrun, Margaret Hofer, Holly Hotchner, Richard Kowall, John Kuss, and May Stone. I am also grateful to the staffs of the Albany Institute of History and Art; the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford; the Bodleian Library, Oxford; the British Library; the British Museum; the Brooklyn Museum; the William Andrews Clark Memorial Library, University of California, Los Angeles; the Courtauld Institute of Art, London; the Fine Arts Library of Harvard University; the Guildhall Library, London; Historic Hudson Valley, Tar- ry town, N.Y.; the Colonial Williamsburg Foundation; the Historical Society of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia; the Huntington Library, San Marino, Calif.; the John Carter Brown Library, Providence, R.I.; the Manuscripts Departments of the Library of Congress and the Folger Shakespeare Library, both of Washington, D.C.; the Pierpont Morgan Library, New York City; the Musee de 1'Horlogerie, Geneva; the National Portrait Gallery, London; the New York Public Library; the New York State Library, Albany; the Rare Book Room, Firestone Library, Prince- ton University; the Public Record Office, London; the Worcestershire Records Office, Worcester, England; the Lewis Walpole Library, the Beinecke Library, and the Yale University Library, all of Yale University; and the Yale Center for British Art. Specific queries were answered and expertise generously shared by Simon Adams, Phyllis Barr, Kathryn Bonomi, Antonio Feros, Robin Gibson, Barbara Graymont, Martha Hodes, Craig W Horle, Richard R. Johnson, Gary Kates, Darline Levy, Leslie Lindenauer, Ellen G. Miles, Alison Gilbert Olson, Deborah Rosen, the late Eugene R. Sheridan, David S. Shields, Stewart Stehlin, David Steinberg, George Thompson, and Lotte C. van de Pol. Bert Hansen offered invaluable advice in the early stages of the research. x : Acknowledgments For special assistance with the illustrations, I wish to thank David Alex- ander, Martha Hamilton-Phillips, Josie Joyce, James Kilvington, Robert Maccubbin, Sheila O'Connell, Kate Ohno, Mme. Fabienne X. Sturm, Joan Hall Sussler, and Sarah Wimbush. I appreciate the interest of colleagues in early American history who voluntarily sent materials pertinent to the project: Jon Butler, Edward Countryman, Richard Godbeer, J. Jefferson Looney, Dennis Maika, Bren- dan McConville, Eric Nooter, Robert C. Ritchie, Peter Thompson, and David Voorhees. Important support was given by Joyce Appleby, John Bonomi, Jr., Jacob Judd, Michael McGiffert, and Judith Van Buskirk. The Earl of Clarendon has been generous in responding to my queries. Fran- ces Pingeon and Carolyn Stifel provided a sounding board for Cornbury stories, seemingly with unflagging interest, over a number of years. I wish to thank the William and Mary Quarterly for permission to re- print material that first appeared there in my article "Lord Cornbury Redressed: The Governor and the Problem Portrait." Laura Jones Dooley and Gil Kelly supplied expert copy editing and management of the project. My editor at the Institute, Fredrika Teute, put her powerful critical skills at my service. For their detailed critiques of the manuscript I am indebted to Bernard Bailyn, Kathryn Bonomi, Jack Bonomi, Ronald Hoffman, W A. Speck, and Sam Tanenhaus. Each of them helped make this a better book. Patricia Updegraff Bonomi