Henry Jermyn, 1st Baron Dover

Who was Henry Jermyn, 1st Baron Dover?

Henry Jermyn, 3rd Baron Jermyn and 1st Baron Dover PC was the second son of Sir Thomas Jermyn, of Rushbrooke, Suffolk, who died in 1659.

Jermyn surpassed his uncle, Lord St Albans, in reputation for profligacy, figuring frequently as "the little Jermyn" in the Grammont Memoirs, as the lover of Lady Castlemaine, Lady Shrewsbury, Miss Jennings and other beauties of the court of Charles II of England. He was also a noted duelist and a lifelong gambler.

While the court was in exile, he obtained a post in the household of the Duke of York, to whom he became master of the horse at the English Restoration. Being a Roman Catholic, he enjoyed a position of influence with James, who on his accession raised Jermyn to the Peerage as Baron Dover in 1685, and appointed him Lieutenant-General of the Royal Guard in 1686.

At the Glorious Revolution, Dover adhered to James, whom he followed abroad, and in July 1689 the deposed sovereign created him Baron Jermyn of Royston, Baron Ipswich, Viscount Cheveley and Earl of Dover in the Jacobite Peerage, these titles not being recognised by the English Government, though Dover became generally known as the Earl of Dover.