STANYAN, Abraham (c.1670-1732), of St. Martin-in-the-Fields, London.

Abraham Stanyan, a career diplomat, entered the secretary of state’s office as a clerk, distinguishing himself under Queen Anne as envoy to Switzerland, of which he published an account on his return to England in 1714. A Whig and member of the Kit-Cat club, he was made a lord of the Admiralty on George I’s accession and returned for Buckingham on the interest of his cousin, Lord Cobham. Vacating his seat in October 1717 on appointment to a Privy Council clerkship, a few weeks later he was appointed ambassador to Turkey, where he remained for over twelve years. His successor there, Lord Kinnoull, described him as ‘a well-behaved, complaisant gentleman of an indolent temper ... whose life [at Constantinople] ... has been upon a sofa with the women’.Wood, Hist. Levant Co. 174-5. After his final return to England in 1730 he held office for a few months as commissioner of the privy seal ad interim. He died 9-11 Sept. 1732, leaving to Lord Cobham the ‘large diamond brilliant ring I usually wear [as a] small token of my gratitude in acknowledgment of the friendship he has constantly honoured me with’.PCC 255 Bedford.