Joseph Gage

Joseph Gage
Bornc.1687
Died1766 (aged 78–79)
OccupationsEntrepreneur, Speculator
Spouses
  • Catherine Caryll

(m.1748, died a few months later)

Joseph Edward Gage (c.1687 – 1766) was an entrepreneur and speculator. He was the son of Joseph Gage of Sherborne Castle and Elizabeth Penruddock and the brother of Thomas Gage, 1st Viscount Gage Bt.

Career

As a young man in Paris, he borrowed money from Richard Cantillon to speculate in shares in Mississippi Company and the South Sea Company. He made a vast paper fortune, whereupon he offered Augustus II the Strong the King of Poland 3,000,000 pounds for his crown. When this offer was declined, he made a similar offer for the crown of Sardinia. Later, he was granted a silver mine, and entered into the service of the King of Spain, given the command of his armies in Sicily and Lombardy, and created a grandee (March 1743) of the first class of the kingdom of Spain. He was also presented by the King of Naples with the order of San Gennaro, and a pension of 4000 ducats a year.

Personal life

Historians disagree over whether or not he married his business partner Lady Mary Herbert. He wrote to her father, William Herbert, 2nd Marquess of Powis, in 1736 to ask for his consent to their marriage. Murphy claims that he later married Catherine Caryll, daughter of John Caryll, of West Harting, Sussex, in 1748 and that he was widowed a few months later.

Manners Chichester claims that Gage first married Catherine Caryll, and then after her death remarried to Lady Mary Herbert.

References

  1. ↑ GENUKI: English Peerage 1790: Barons 9
  2. ↑ 1066: A Medieval Mosaic (Medieval Mosaic)
  3. 1 2 3 Murphy, Martin (2015). The Duchess of Rio Tinto. Oxford: Hollywell Press. ISBN 9780993394409.
  4. ↑ "Letter from Count Joseph Cage to Duke of Powis - Seville 1736". Andalucia.com. 29 March 2022. Retrieved 20 February 2025.

See also