ARUNDELL, Hon. Richard (c.1696-1758), of Allerton Mauleverer, Yorks.

Arundell was the life-long friend of the 3rd Earl of Burlington, whose architectural tastes he shared and who made him his executor and trustee.PCC 333 Searle. A bosom friend of Henry Pelham’s — they both married daughters of the 2nd Duke of Rutland — he was also on intimate terms with the Duke of Newcastle, to whom he once wrote on being asked to intervene in a family quarrel:

In many years acquaintance I have had the honour to be present at some family altercations, and generally, in my opinion, either might have said with great justice to the other, Brother, Brother we are both in the wrong.Newcastle to Arundell, 25 Oct. 1744, Arundell to Newcastle, 30 Oct. 1744, Add. 32703, ff. 386, 395.

Horace Walpole describes him as ‘very silent, and shrewd, and had humour; but very indolent’.Corresp. (Yale ed.), 14 n. 94.

Arundell served as page to Queen Anne, for which he received a life pension of £156 p.a.Royal archives, ex. inf. Sir Owen Morshead. Returned by Burlington for Knaresborough, he was taken up by Sir Robert Walpole, made surveyor general of works, invited to Houghton, and consulted by his host on architectural matters.Hervey, Mems. 741; Ilchester, Lord Hervey and his Friends, 74. He retained that office till 1737 when he was made master of the mint. On the formation of the Broad-bottom Administration in 1744 Pelham strengthened himself at the Treasury by appointing Arundell to a seat on the board, from which he was promoted to be treasurer of the chamber on the dismissal of Sir John Hynde Cotton in 1746. Two years later Pelham recommended him for the life sinecure of clerk of the pipe, as ‘personally known to his Majesty’, adding:

As long as he continues in his present employment, it is indeed an income of five hundred pounds a year more; but if any accident should happen which may remove him from his present place, it will be a great pleasure to him in his latter days to have this comfortable subsistence, owing entirely to his Majesty’s personal favour and kindness for him.Pelham to Newcastle, 16 Sept. 1748, Add. 32716, ff. 229-31.

In 1751 Pelham reported to Lord Hartington that Arundell had become ‘the reigning favourite at court’.2 July 1751, Devonshire mss. When Newcastle reconstructed his Government at the end of 1755, Arundell retired with a pension. He died 20 Jan. 1758.