William Cavendish, 3rd Duke of Devonshire

Who was William Cavendish, 3rd Duke of Devonshire?

William Cavendish, 3rd Duke of Devonshire, KG, PC was a British nobleman and Whig politician, the son of William Cavendish, 2nd Duke of Devonshire and the Hon. Rachel Russell.

He married Catherine Hoskins on 27 March 1718. They had seven children:

Lady Caroline Cavendish, married William Ponsonby, 2nd Earl of Bessborough and had issue

William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire

Lord George Augustus Cavendish, died unmarried

Lady Elizabeth Cavendish, married Hon. John Ponsonby and had issue

Field Marshal Lord Frederick Cavendish, died unmarried

Lord John Cavendish

Lady Rachel Cavendish, married Horatio Walpole, 1st Earl of Orford.

He was made a Privy Counsellor in 1731, and served as Lord Privy Seal from 1731 to 1733. He was invested as a Knight of the Garter in 1733.

In 1739, he was enlisted as a founding governor for the new children's charity, the Foundling Hospital, in Bloomsbury, London, which aimed to alleviate the problem of babies being abandoned by destitute mothers and ended up becoming a centre for British art and music. William Cavendish sold the Old Devonshire House at 48 Boswell Street, Theobald's Road in Bloomsbury. In 1734 Cavendish engaged architect William Kent to build a new Cavendish House in fashionable Picadilly.