Robert Hampden-Trevor, 1st Viscount Hampden

Robert Hampden-Trevor, 1st Viscount Hampden (17 February 1706 – 22 August 1783) was a British diplomat at The Hague and then joint Postmaster General.

Life

He was the eldest son of the second marriage of John Trevor and studied at Queens College, Oxford, graduating in 1725 and then becoming a fellow of All Souls College, Oxford.

In 1729, he was appointed as a clerk in the Secretary of State's office. In 1734 he went to the United Provinces as secretary to the embassy under Horatio Walpole. He succeeded as head of the embassy in 1739, initially as Envoy-Extraordinary, and from 1741 as Minister-Plenipotentiary. During this time, he maintained a regular correspondence with Horace Walpole.

IN 1750 he was appointed a commissioner of the Revenue in Ireland. He took the additional name of Hampden in 1754, on succeeding to the estates of that family, from John Hampden. In 1776, twelve years after he had succeeding his brother as Baron Trevor, he was created Viscount Hampden.

From 1759 to 1765 he was joint Postmaster General. He wrote some Latin poems which were published at Parma in 1792 as Poemata Hampdeniana. His second son, John Hampden-Trevor (1749–1824), died only three weeks after he had succeeded his brother Thomas as 3rd Viscount Hampden, the titles becoming extinct.

References

• William Carr, "Trevor, Robert Hampden-, first Viscount Hampden (1706–1783)", rev. Martyn J. Powell, Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, (Oxford University Press, 2004; online edn, Jan 2008) , accessed 10 Aug 2008.
•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.