Sir John Lade

Sir John Lade, 4th Baronet. Painted about 1778 by Sir Joshua Reynolds

Sir John Lade, 4th Baronet. Painted about 1778 by Sir Joshua Reynolds

One of Henry Thrale’s sisters was Lady Mary Lade (1733-1802), who married Baronet Sir John Lade, MP for Camelford, on 27 May 1756.

They had a son, also called John who inherited his father’s fortune and Baronetcy, and later married Letitia Derby who was at one time mistress to mistress of the Duke of York. They between them got through the immense fortune left by the first Sir John.

Sir John Lade the junior was made ward of Henry Thrale, but when freed of this he took Samuel Johnson’s advice and became a notorious rake.

It was said (by Hester Thrale in Thraliana dated 1 March 1779) that Lady Mary Lade bore an illegitimate child for Colonel Sir Philip Jennings Clerke M.P. (died 1788) after the death of her husband Sir John Lade. As Sir John the younger was born after the death of his father Sir John Lade, it is possible that Sir John Lade the younger was the illegitimate son of Colonel Sir Philip Jennings Clerke.

It was of Sir John Lade the junior that Samuel Johnson wrote the following poem…

To Sir John Lade, on His Coming of Age 'A short song of congratulation'

Long-expected one and twenty
      Lingering year at last is flown,
Pomp and pleasure, pride and plenty,
      Great Sir John, are all your own.

Loosened from the minor’s tether,
      Free to mortgage or to sell,
Wild as wind, and light as feather,
      Bid the slaves of thrift farewell.

Call the Bettys, Kates, and Jennys,
      Every name that laughs at care,
Lavish of your grandsire’s guineas,
      Show the spirit of an heir.

All that prey on vice and folly
      Joy to see their quarry fly,
Here the gamester light and jolly,
      There the lender grave and sly.

Wealth, Sir John†, was made to wander,
      Let it wander as it will;
See the jockey, see the pander,
      Bid them come, and take their fill.

When the bonny blade carouses,
      Pockets full, and spirits high,
What are acres? What are houses?
      Only dirt, or wet or dry.

If the guardian or the mother
      Tell the woes of wilful waste,
Scorn their counsel and their pother
      You can hang or drown at last.

Written by Dr Samuel Johnson 1780.
When Hester Thrale first published the poem, she substituted “my lad” for “Sir John” to protect his name. The version thus altered is said to have influenced A.E. Housman when writing A Shropshire Lad.