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Joseph Gage

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Joseph Gage
Bornc.1687
Died1766 (aged 78–79)
Occupation(s)Entrepreneur, Speculator
Spouses
  • Catherine Caryll

(m.1748, died a few months later)

Joseph Edward Gage (c.1687 – 1766) was an entrepreneur and speculator. He was the son of Joseph Gage of Sherborne Castle and Elizabeth Penruddock and the brother of Thomas Gage, 1st Viscount Gage Bt.

Career

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As a young man in Paris, he borrowed money from Richard Cantillon to speculate in shares in Mississippi Company and the South Sea Company. He made a vast paper fortune, whereupon he offered Augustus II the Strong the King of Poland 3,000,000 pounds for his crown. When this offer was declined, he made a similar offer for the crown of Sardinia. Later, he was granted a silver mine, and entered into the service of the King of Spain, given the command of his armies in Sicily and Lombardy, and created a grandee (March 1743) of the first class of the kingdom of Spain.[1] He was also presented by the King of Naples with the order of San Gennaro, and a pension of 4000 ducats a year.[2]

Personal Life

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Historians disagree over whether or not he married his business partner Lady Mary Herbert.[3] He wrote to her father, William Herbert, 2nd Marquess of Powis, in 1736 to ask for his consent to their marriage.[4] Murphy claims that he later married Catherine Caryll, daughter of John Caryll, of West Harting, Sussex, in 1748 and that he was widowed a few months later.[3]

Manners Chichester claims that Gage first married Catherine Caryll, and then after her death remarried to Lady Mary Herbert.[3]

References

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  • Richard Cantillon: Entrepreneur and Economist by Antoin E. Murphy ISBN 0-19-828535-3
  1. ^ GENUKI: English Peerage 1790: Barons 9
  2. ^ 1066: A Medieval Mosaic (Medieval Mosaic)
  3. ^ a b c Murphy, Martin (2015). The Duchess of Rio Tinto. Oxford: Hollywell Press. ISBN 9780993394409.
  4. ^ "Letter from Count Joseph Cage to Duke of Powis - Seville 1736". Andalucia.com. 29 March 2022. Retrieved 20 February 2025.

See also

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