Henry Pierrepont, 1st Marquess of Dorchester

Henry Pierrepont, 1st Marquess of Dorchester, PC, FRS (March 1606 – 8 December 1680) was an English peer, the son of the Robert Pierrepont, 1st Earl of Kingston-upon-Hull.

Career

Styled Viscount Newark from 1628, he was Member of Parliament for Nottingham from 1628 until 1629, and was summoned to the House of Lords in his father's Barony of Pierrepont in 1641. He succeeded his father as 2nd Earl of Kingston-upon-Hull in 1643.

During the earlier part of the English Civil War he was at Oxford in attendance upon the King, whom he represented at the negotiations at Uxbridge. In 1645 he was made a Privy Counsellor and created Marquess of Dorchester; but in 1647 he compounded for his estates by paying a large fine to the parliamentarians. Afterwards, Lord Dorchester, who was always fond of books, spent his time mainly in London engaged in the study of medicine and law, his devotion to the former science bringing upon him a certain amount of ridicule from gentlemen. His collection of books is now part of the library of the Royal College of Physicians.

After the Restoration he was restored to the Privy Council, and was made Recorder of Nottingham and a Fellow of the Royal Society.

Marriages and children

He married first Cecilia Bayning, a daughter of Paul Bayning, 1st Viscount Bayning. They had four children:

• Lady Anne Pierrepont (born 9 March 1630). Married John Manners, 1st Duke of Rutland.
• Grace Pierrepont.
• Henry Pierrepont (d. 1649).
• Robert Pierrepont.

He was secondly married to Lady Catherine Stanley, a daughter of James Stanley, 7th Earl of Derby and Charlotte Stanley, Countess of Derby. This marriage was childless.

Dorchester survived his sons and when he died in London on 8 December 1680 the Marquessate of Dorchester became extinct. He was succeeded as 3rd Earl of Kingston-upon-Hull by Robert (d. 1682), a son of Robert Pierrepont of Thoresby, Nottinghamshire, and as 4th Earl by Robert's brother William (d. 1690).