Roger Newdigate

Sir Roger Newdigate in the Library at Arbury by Arthur Devis

Sir Roger Newdigate, 5th Baronet (30 May 1719 – 23 November 1806) was an English politician and collector of antiquities.^[1]

He was born in Arbury, Warwickshire, the son of Sir Richard Newdigate, 3rd Baronet (who died in 1727) and inherited the title 5th Baronet and the estates of Arbury and of Harefield in Middlesex on the early death of his brother in 1734. He was educated at Westminster School and University College, Oxford, and contributed greatly to the university throughout the remainder of his life. He is most remembered as the founder of the Newdigate Prize on his death^[2] and as a collector of antiques, a number of which he donated to the University. The prize for poetry helped make the names of many illustrious writers.

From 1742 until 1747, he served as Member of Parliament (MP) for Middlesex, and in 1751, he began a 30-year tenure as an MP for Oxford University.

He married, firstly Sophia Conyers in 1743, and secondly Hesther Margaret Munday in 1776. Both marriages were childless.

He lavished attention on the Elizabethan Arbury Hall which he rebuilt over a period of thirty years in splendid Gothic Renaissance style, engaging the services of the architect Henry Couchman.

He is immortalised in fiction in George Eliot's Scenes of Clerical Life, where he appears as Sir Christopher Cheverel in Mr Gilfil's Love Story.^[3]

References

1.  Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Newdigate, Sir Roger". Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
2. "Encyclopaedia Britannica, Newdigate Prize". Britannica.com. Retrieved 2012-04-17.
3. Cooke, George Willis. George Eliot: A Critical Study of her Life, Writings and Philosophy. Whitefish: Kessinger, 2004.