Duke of Devonshire

Henry Cavendish was descended from the dukes of Devonshire on one side and from the dukes of Kent on the other. His father, Lord Charles Cavendish, was either the third or the fifth son of the second duke of Devonshire. His mother, Lady Anne Grey, was the daughter of Henry, duke of Kent. She was not in robust health when she married, and she died when Henry was only two years old. 

Dukes of Devonshire and the Dukes of Kent, he was bom at Nice for his mother, Lady Anne Cavendish, had gone to France for the benefit of the mild climate. The date of his birth is given as October 10, 1731. The unfortunate death of Lady Cavendish two years later, and the consequent lack of maternal affection in the young child s life may account... 

Kennedy s unswerving loyalty to the British monarchy was rewarded his daughter, Kathleen Kennedy, the sister of John, Robert, and Edward, married William Cavendish, the Marquess of Hartington. Hartington was the son and heir to the 10th Duke of Devonshire and his wife, Lady Mary Alice Cecil (daughter of the 4th Marquess of Salisbury), the Dutchess of Devonshire. 

In the hierarchy of the British nobility, the dukes are the highest rank of royalty, taking second place only to the monarchy itself. The Duke of Devonshire is at the center of the interlocking families of the Cecils, Salisburys, and Macmillans who have mn British politics since the Glorious Revolution. 

Henry Cavendish was one of the great English amateur scientists. He came from a wealthy family from the line of the Dukes of Devonshire, although he was not personally wealthy until later in his life. He went to Cambridge to study but never graduated. Cavendish was a very private person and conducted most of his work for his own interest, publishing only three major papers, one on his discovery of inflammable air (what we call hydrogen), one on the relation of fixed air, calcareous matter (calcium), and water, and one a study of the composition of the atmosphere. 

Cavendish s heritage is commemorated in the great Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge. It was William Cavendish, 7th Duke of Devonshire and Chancellor of the University, who established the laboratory, in 1874. 

A synoptic view of the teaching of chemistry in Oxford at the time of Odling s election is to be found in the report of the Devonshire Commission in 1873. This Commission was set up, at the urging of the British Association, to enquire into the state of scientific education and research throughout Britain. The chairman was the Duke of Devonshire, the founder of the Cavendish Laboratory in Cambridge, and Oxford science was represented by Henry Smith, the Savilian Professor of Geometry. The chemist on the commission was... 

Cavendish, Henry (1731-1810) British chemist and physicist, born in France. Although untrained, his inheritance from his grandfather, the Duke of Devonshire, enabled him to Uve as a recluse and study science. in his experiments with gases (1766), he correctly distinguished between hydrogen and carbon dioxide, and in 1781 synthe-... 

The Scientific Papers of the Honourable [jic] Henry Cavendish, F.R.S. Volume I The Electrical Researches Edited from the Published Papers, and the Cavendish Manuscripts in the possession of.. . the Duke of Devonshire. .. by James Clerk Maxwell.. . Revised by Sir Joseph Larmor Volume II Chemical and Dynamical. Edited from the Published Papers, and the Cavendish Manuscripts in the possession of. . . the Duke of Devonshire. .. by Sir Edward Thorpe. . . , etc., 2 vols., Cambridge, 1921. Referred to as Set. Pap. ... 

A relative of Henry Cavendish, the duke of Devonshire, donated means which made it possible to establish a laboratory, the Cavendish Laboratory, in 1871. The first holder of the highly esteemed Cavendish professorship was James Clerk Maxwell, the second was Lord Rayleigh, who discovered the noble gas argon in the laboratory. In 1934 the heavy hydrogen isotope tritium was synthesized in the laboratory. 

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