Francis Negus was an English military officer, courtier, politician, and reputed inventor of the drink negus

Negus (drink)

Negus is the name of a drink made of wine, most commonly port, mixed with hot water, spiced and sugared.-History:According to Malone this drink was invented by Col...

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Life

Negus is a Norfolk

Norfolk

Norfolk is a low-lying county in the East of England. It has borders with Lincolnshire to the west, Cambridgeshire to the west and southwest and Suffolk to the south. Its northern and eastern boundaries are the North Sea coast and to the north-west the county is bordered by The Wash. The county...

 family name. From 1685 to 1688 he was secretary to Henry Howard, 7th Duke of Norfolk

Henry Howard, 7th Duke of Norfolk

Henry Howard, 7th Duke of Norfolk, KG, PC, Earl Marshal was a politician and soldier. He was the son of Henry Howard, 6th Duke of Norfolk and Lady Anne Somerset, daughter of Edward Somerset, 2nd Marquess of Worcester and Elizabeth Dormer.He married Mary Mordaunt, the only daughter and heiress of...

, and in that capacity made the acquaintance of Elias Ashmole

Elias Ashmole

Elias Ashmole was a celebrated English antiquary, politician, officer of arms, astrologer and student of alchemy. Ashmole supported the royalist side during the English Civil War, and at the restoration of Charles II he was rewarded with several lucrative offices.Ashmole was an antiquary with a...

. He served in the French wars under John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough

John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough

John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, Prince of Mindelheim, KG, PC , was an English soldier and statesman whose career spanned the reigns of five monarchs through the late 17th and early 18th centuries...

, and attained the rank of lieutenant-colonel in the 25th Regiment of Foot.

He was in 1715 appointed joint commissioner, and on 27 June 1717 sole commissioner, for executing the office of master of the horse, an office he held until the death of George I. He was appointed avener

Avener

An avener, or avenor, was the chief officer of the stables of a king, and the officer in charge of obtaining positions for horses belonging to the king. The Latin version of the word was avenarius, from the Latin avena, meaning "oats" or "straw"...

 and clerk marshal

Clerk Marshal

The Clerk Marshal was an official of the British Royal Household in the department of the Master of the Horse. From the Restoration the office was held with that of Avenor until the latter post was abolished in 1793. The office of Clerk Marshal was then combined with that of First or Chief Equerry...

 to George II on 20 June 1727, and master of his majesty's buckhounds on 19 July in the same year. He represented Ipswich

Ipswich (UK Parliament constituency)

Ipswich is a borough constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election.- Boundaries :...

 in parliament from 1717 until his death, at his seat at Dallinghoo

Dallinghoo

- Location :Dallinghoo is a village some 3 miles north of Woodbridge, Suffolk, England.Formed from Church Road and Pound Hill to the south and branches NE after the centre of the village....

, Suffolk

Suffolk

Suffolk is a non-metropolitan county of historic origin in East Anglia, England. It has borders with Norfolk to the north, Cambridgeshire to the west and Essex to the south. The North Sea lies to the east...

, on 9 September 1732. Negus was also a ranger of Swinley Chace, lieutenant and deputy warden of Windsor Forest, and one of the commissioners of the lieutenancy of Middlesex

Lord Lieutenant of Middlesex

This is a list of people who served as Lord Lieutenant of Middlesex. The office was abolished on 1 April 1965, with the creation of Greater London and the post of Lord Lieutenant of Greater London, with small parts of Middlesex coming under the jurisdiction of the Lord Lieutenant of Surrey, the...

 and liberty of Westminster

Liberty of Westminster

The City and Liberty of Westminster was an independent liberty, located to the west of the City of London in the county of Middlesex, England....

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The invention of negus

The anecdote runs that on one occasion, when the bottle was passing rather more rapidly than good fellowship seemed to warrant over a hot political discussion, in which a number of prominent Whigs and Tories were taking part, Negus recommended the dilution of the wine with hot water and sugar. Attention was diverted from the point at issue to a discussion of the merits of wine and water, which ended in the compound being nicknamed 'negus.' Edmond Malone

Edmond Malone

Edmond Malone was an Irish Shakespearean scholar and editor of the works of William Shakespeare.Assured of an income after the death of his father in 1774, Malone was able to give up his law practice for at first political and then more congenial literary pursuits. He went to London, where he...

 in his Life of Dryden (1800) states that the mixture called negus was invented by Colonel Negus in Queen Anne's time. Other evidence is cited by Thomas Seccombe

Thomas Seccombe

Thomas Seccombe was a miscellaneous English writer and, from 1891 to 1901, assistant editor of the Dictionary of National Biography, writing over 700 entries. Educated at Felsted and Balliol College, Oxford, taking a first in Modern History in 1889.-Works:*Twelve Bad Men *The Age of Johnson *The...

 in the Dictionary of National Biography

Dictionary of National Biography

The Dictionary of National Biography is a standard work of reference on notable figures from British history, published from 1885...

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