GEORGE AUGUSTUS SELWYN (1719-1791)
Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume
V24,
Page 615
of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
GEORGE AUGUSTUS SELWYN (1719-1791)
, English wit, son of Colonel John Selwyn (d
.
1751) of Matson, Gloucestershire, was born on the 11th of August 1719
.
Educated at Eton and See also: - OXFORD
- OXFORD, EARLS OF
- OXFORD, EDWARD DE VERE, 17TH EARL
- OXFORD, JOHN DE VERE, 13TH EARL OF (1443-1513)
- OXFORD, PROVISIONS OF
- OXFORD, ROBERT DE VERE, 9TH EARL OF (1362-1392)
- OXFORD, ROBERT HARLEY, 1ST
, he became member of parliament for the family See also: - BOROUGH (A.S. nominative burh, dative byrig, which produces some of the place-names ending in bury, a sheltered or fortified place, the camp of refuge of a tribe, the stronghold of a chieftain; cf. Ger. Burg, Fr. bor, bore, bourg)
- BOROUGH [BURROUGH, BURROWE, BORROWS], STEVEN (1525–1584)
of Ludgershall in 1747, and from 1754, three years after he inherited Matson, to 178o he represented Gloucester
.
In parliament he took no part in debate, but he managed to obtain two or three lucrative sinecures; in society he was very popular and won a great reputation as a wit
.
He is said to have been very fond of seeing corpses, criminals and executions, and Horace Walpole says he loved " nothing upon earth so well as a criminal, except the execution-of him." He died in London on the 25th of January 1791
.
Like the eccentric duke of Queensberry Selwyn claimed to be the father of Maria Fagniani, who became the wife of Francis Charles Seymour, 3rd marquess of Hertford
.
See J
.
H
.
Jesse, George Selwyn and his Contemporaries (1843—1844; new ed., 1882) ; and S
.
P
.
Kerr, George Selwyn and the Wits (1909)
.
End of Article: GEORGE AUGUSTUS SELWYN (1719-1791)
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