Earl of Dartmouth Dies at Age of 84
William Heneage Legge, Sixth Earl of Dartmouth and great-great-grandson of the English peer for whom Dartmouth College is named, died on March 11 at the family seat in Wolverhampton, England. He was 84 years old.
Lord Dartmouth visited the College in 1904 to lay the cornerstone of the second Dartmouth Hall, and at that time was given the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws. His direct relationship with the College remained constant ever after, the last of his many greetings arriving just a few weeks before his death, upon the occasion of the rededication of Dartmouth Hall.
Born in 1851, Lord Dartmouth was educated at Eton and Oxford, and before succeeding to the earldom in 1791, sat in the House of Commons for 13 years, first as M. P. for West Kent and later for Lewisham. For several years he was Conservative whip in the House, and from 1885 to 1892 was Vice Chamberlain in Queen Victoria's household. Lord Dartmouth, P.C., G.C. V.0., K.C.8., also held the titles Baron Dartmouth and Viscount Lewisham, and was Lord Lieutenant of Staffordshire from 1891 to 1927. Since 1893 he had been Provincial Grand Master of Freemasons for Staffordshire, and was president of the Staffordshire Territorial Army Association. He was honorary colonel of the sth South Staffordshire Regiment and of the Army Service Corps, and a late honorary colonel of the 46th North Midland Division. He was chairman of the trustees of the William Salt Library, Stafford, and was a member of the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts.
Lord Dartmouth married Lady Mary Coke, daughter of the Second Earl of Leicester in 1879, and had three sons and two (laughters: William, Viscount Lewisham, now the Seventh Earl of Dartmouth; Gerald, who was killed in the World War in 1915; Humphry; Lady Dorothy, now the wife of Colonel Francis H. L. Meynell; and Lady Joan Margaret. Lady Dartmouth died in 1929.
The lineage of the house of Dartmouth goes back to Thomas Legge, Lord Mayor of London in 1346 and in 1353. His great- great-great-grandson, William Legge, married Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Sir William Washington, and their son, George egge> in 1682 became the Baron Dartmouth as a reward for his services as Admiral of the British Navy. George's son, William, was elevated to Viscount Lewisham and Earl of Dartmouth in 1711, and married Anne, daughter of Heneage, Earl of Aylesford. It was their grandson, William, who became the Second Earl of Dartmouth in 1750 and who as Secretary of State for the Colonies in 1769 gave his name to Dartmouth College in the then British province of New Hampshire. By direct descent the earldom of Dartmouth then passed down to George, William, William Walter, and William Heneage, the sixth Earl who has just passed away.
The late Lord Dartmouth was proud of the fact that his house was associated with the colonial history of America, both through marriage with the house of Washington and through the founding of Dartmouth College.
Louis E. Leverone '04 The choice of alumni in the Central States District to succeed himself as a member of the Alumni Council for three years. His home is in Chicago.
