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2 unusual facts about Simon Harcourt, 1st Viscount Harcourt


John Philips

A monument in his memory was erected in 1710 by Simon Harcourt, 1st Viscount Harcourt in Westminster Abbey, between the monuments to Chaucer and Drayton, with the motto Honos erit huic quoque pomo from the title page of Cyder.

Sir Thomas Cookes, 2nd Baronet

It was initially decided that Magdalen Hall should be the recipient, but on 31 October 1712 the Lord Keeper, Simon Harcourt, 1st Viscount Harcourt, decreed in the Court of Chancery that Cookes's wishes were that the money, now totalling £15,000, should go to Gloucester Hall.


John Monck Mason

When Lord Harcourt's government, in 1773, wished to do something for the Catholics, Mason and Sir Hercules Langrishe were asked to bring in the same bill, together with another permitting Catholics to take leases for lives of lands; but both were suddenly dropped.

Simon Harcourt, 1st Viscount Harcourt

On the accession of George I however, he was deprived of office and retired to Cokethorpe, where he enjoyed the society of men of letters, Swift, Pope, Prior and other famous writers being among his frequent guests.

Harcourt enjoyed the reputation of being a brilliant orator; Speaker Onslow going so far as to say that "Harcourt had the greatest skill and power of speech of any man I ever knew in a public assembly."

Viscount Harcourt

Harcourt was the son of Sir William Vernon Harcourt, son of William Vernon Harcourt, son of the Right Reverend Edward Venables-Vernon-Harcourt, son of George Venables-Vernon, 1st Baron Vernon, by his third wife Martha Harcourt, daughter of Simon Harcourt, son of Simon Harcourt, 1st Viscount Harcourt.


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