Charles Caesar 1673-1741

Charles CAESAR 1673-1741

Caesar's bookplate (British Museum Franks Collection *264)

Biographical Note

Son of Sir Charles Caesar, politician and landowner, from whom he inherited the family estate at Benington, Hertfordshire in 1694; he was a great-great grandson of Sir Julius Caesar. Matriculated at St Catherine's College, Cambridge 1689, but did not graduate; admitted at the Middle Temple, 1690. He was MP for Hertford or Hertfordshire almost continuously 1701-41; his parliamentary career was initially dominated by feuds with the Cowper family but he was Treasurer of the Navy 1711-14 and was an associate of Robert Harley. He was also noted as a Jacobite agent. He spent extensively on refashioning the house at gardens at Benington (though the house burnt down soon afterwards), lost money in the South Sea Bubble, and was for a time imprisoned for debt in the 1730s.

Books

Caesar used an engraved armorial bookplate (Franks *264); the extent and disposition of his library is not known. His estate was heavily encumbered with debts when he died and his will anticipated the sale of much of his property to settle these.

Sources

• Will of Charles Caesar, The National Archives PROB 11/708/391.
• Gambier Howe, E. R. J. Franks bequest: catalogue of British and American book plates bequeathed to the ... British Museum. London, 1903-4.
• Munby, Lionel M. "Caesar, Charles (1673–1741), politician and Jacobite agent garden designer." Oxford Dictionary of National Biography.