CAVENDISH, William, the first Duke of Devonshire, distinguished as a statesman and patriot, was born in 1640, and spent the early part of his life abroad. In 1677, having taken his seat in parliament for Derby, he vigorously opposed the venal measures of the court; and in the following year he was one of the committee appointed to draw up articles of impeachment against the lord-treasurer Danby. In 1679 he was re-elected for Derby, and made a privy-councillor by Charles II.; but he soon withdrew from the board with his friend Lord Russell, when he found that the Popish interest prevailed. He carried up the articles of impeachment to the House of Lords against Lord Chief-justice Scroggs, for his arbitrary and illegal proceedings in the court of king's bench; and when the king declared his resolution not to sign the bill for excluding the Duke of York, afterwards James II., he moved in the House of Commons that a bill might be brought in for the association of all his majesty's Protestant subjects. He also openly denounced the king's counsellors, and voted for an address to remove them. He appeared in defence of Lord Russell at his trial, at a time when it was scarcely more criminal to be an accomplice than a witness. The same fortitude, activity, and love of his country, animated him to oppose the arbitrary proceedings of James II.; and when he saw that there was no other mode of saving the nation, he was foremost in inviting the Prince of Orange from Holland, and was the first nobleman who appeared in arms to receive him at his landing. He was created Duke of Devonshire in 1694 by William and Mary, at whose court he held several important offices. His last public service was assisting in concluding the union with Scotland, for negotiating which he had been appointed a commissioner by Queen Anne. He died in 1707, and ordered the following inscription to be put on his monument:
Wilhelmus dux Devon,
Bonorum Principum Fidels Subditus,
Inimicus et Invisus Tyrannis.