Peregrine Osborne, 2nd Duke of Leeds

The Duke of Leeds. Stipple engraving after Jean Petitot, c. 1710.

Ancestral arms of the Osborne family, Dukes of Leeds

Vice-Admiral Peregrine Osborne, 2nd Duke of Leeds (1659 – 25 June 1729), styled Viscount Osborne between 1673 and 1689, Earl of Danby between 1689 and 1694 and Marquess of Carmarthen between 1694 and 1712, was an English Tory politician.

Background

Osborne was the second son of the Thomas Osborne (later 1st Duke of Leeds) and his wife, Bridget, a daughter of the 2nd Earl of Lindsey. In 1673, his father was created Viscount Osborne in the Peerage of Scotland, but surrendered the title in favour of Peregrine when the former was created Viscount Latimer in the Peerage of England later that year.

Political career

In 1677, Osborne sat in Parliament as MP for Berwick-upon-Tweed and then briefly for Corfe Castle when he succeeded his brother to the seat in 1679. In 1689, he briefly sat in Parliament again, this time for York. He held the seat for almost a year when he left the Commons in 1689 after being called up to House of Lords in his father's barony of Osborne.

From them on, however, he did not take an active role in the Lords, instead choosing a career in the Royal Navy and eventually becoming Vice Admiral of the Red in 1702/03. He was involved in the Attack on Brest on 18 June 1694. As a ship designer he served as liaison with the Russian Tsar Peter the Great on his visit to London in 1698. He also helped negotiate a proposal of tobacco merchants to ship their products to Russia.

Family

On 25 April 1682, he married Bridget Hyde (the only daughter and heiress of Sir Thomas Hyde, 2nd Baronet) and they had four children:

• William Henry, Viscount Latimer and later Earl of Danby (1690–1711)
• Lord Peregrine Hyde, briefly Earl of Danby, then Marquess of Carmarthen and later 3rd Duke of Leeds (1691–1731)
• Lady Mary (14 August 1688–1722), married (1) Henry Somerset, 2nd Duke of Beaufort (2) John Campbell Cochrane, 4th Earl of Dundonald
• Lady Bridget, married Revd. William Williams, Prebendary of Chichester Cathedral.

Danby inherited his father's titles in 1712 and upon his own death in 1729, was succeeded in them by his second son, Peregrine. He was buried in the Osborne family chapel at All Hallows Church, Harthill, South Yorkshire.

See also

• List of deserters from James II to William of Orange

References

• Lee, Sidney, ed. (1895). "Osborne, Peregrine" . Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. 42. London: Smith, Elder & Co.