James Cecil, 4th Earl of Salisbury
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The Earl of Salisbury | |
|---|---|
 James Cecil and his sister Lady Catherine by John Michael Wright, 1669 | |
| Born | 1666 |
| Died | 1694 (aged 28) |
| Spouse |
Frances Bennett (m. 1683) |
| Children | James Cecil, 5th Earl of Salisbury |
| Parent(s) | James Cecil, 3rd Earl of Salisbury Lady Margaret Manners |
James Cecil, 4th Earl of Salisbury (1666–1694), until 1683 known by the courtesy title of Viscount Cranborne, was an English nobleman, politician, and peer.
A courtier of King James II, during the Glorious Revolution of 1688 he commanded a regiment in support of the king. Afterwards, he was imprisoned in the Tower of London for some twenty-two months, eventually being charged with high treason. Although released in October 1690 following a general pardon, he died in 1694 at the age of twenty-eight.
Baptised on 25 September 1666, Salisbury was one of the ten children of James Cecil, 3rd Earl of Salisbury KG, by his marriage in 1661 to Lady Margaret Manners, a daughter of John Manners, 8th Earl of Rutland. He was educated at St John's College, Cambridge,[1] and as his father's eldest surviving son succeeded him when he died in May 1683.[2] In 1656 Thomas Russell purchased half of Witley Park in Surrey for Cecil's father-in-law and a half share, therefore, passed on the marriage of each daughter, one of whom was Cecil's wife.[3]
On 13 July 1683, at the age of sixteen, the new Earl of Salisbury married Frances Bennett (1670–1713), a daughter of Simon Bennett, of Buckinghamshire.[2] Bennett, who by the time of this marriage had died, had left three daughters, and in his will had left them each £20,000, subject to their not marrying before the age of sixteen or without the consent of those he named, with the proviso that the legacy of a daughter doing so was to be reduced to £10,000. Frances Bennett married Salisbury before she was sixteen, but with the consent of the Executors to the will, and this later led to litigation.[4]
