Henry Cavendish, 2nd Duke of Newcastle


Henry Cavendish, 2nd Duke of Newcastle-upon-Tyne, KG, PC, styled Viscount Mansfield until 1676, was an English politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1660 to 1676, and then inherited the dukedom.
Cavendish was the only son of William Cavendish, 1st Duke of Newcastle and his first wife, Elizabeth Basset. His maternal grandparents were William Basset and Judith Austen, daughter of Thomas Austen.
After the Restoration of the Monarchy he was appointed Master of the Robes and a Gentleman of the Bedchamber.
In April 1660, Lord Mansfield was elected Member of Parliament for Derbyshire in the Convention Parliament. He was elected MP for Northumberland in 1661 for the Cavalier Parliament.
In 1676 he inherited the title of Duke of Newcastle and the family seat of Welbeck Abbey on the death of his father and was invested a Knight of the Garter in 1677.
He died in 1691, leaving no surviving male heir and thus the dukedom became extinct. Welbeck Abbey and other East Midlands estates passed to his favourite daughter Margaret, who had married John Holles, for whom the dukedom was recreated in 1694. The bequest was unsuccessfully contested by Cavendish's other daughters.

Family

In 1652, Henry married Frances Pierrepont, daughter of The Hon. William Pierrepont, and they had six children:
The department of Manuscripts and Special Collections, The University of Nottingham holds a number of papers relating to the 2nd Duke of Newcastle: the Cavendish Papers, part of the Portland Collection, includes some of his personal papers; and the Newcastle Collection includes estate papers and family settlements from the time of the 2nd Duke.
Henry is the most recent common ancestor of Charles, Prince of Wales and his second wife, Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall.
, Nottinghamshire, in the 17th century