His second wife, Harriet, became a hostess at Wellington's society dinners, and wrote an important diary cataloging contemporary political intrigues.

[4] Arbuthnot also held a number of diplomatic postings, notably as consul general in Portugal between 1800 and 1801, as Minister to Sweden.

[8] Arbuthnot was tasked in the early days of 1807 to bring Selim III into the Anglo-Russian camp opposed to France.

[3] In the context of a renewed Russo-Turkish War and tariff evasion under the commercial treaty, Arbuthnot pursued his own line, prepared to use force.

Arbuthnot sat for Orford between 1812 and 1818, a pocket borough of the 2nd Marquess of Hertford, in a deal with the Liverpool ministry on behalf of Edmond Alexander MacNaghten.

[14] In September 1812, John McMahon, private secretary to the Prince Regent, tried Arbuthnot in an attempt to shut down a series of scurrilous articles in the Morning Chronicle.

[20] Ashburton was controlled by landlords Robert Trefusis, 18th Baron Clinton and Sir Lawrence Vaughan Palk.

[21] Under Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, Arbuthnot was First Commissioner of Woods and Forests in 1828 and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster between 1828 and 1830.

In the 1830s he remained a major figure in the party management of the Tories, working with John Charles Herries, William Holmes and Joseph Planta.

[22] During the last years of Arbuthnot's life, after the death of his second wife Harriet, he turned over the family home to his eldest son, and moved into the Duke of Wellington's London residence, Apsley House, as his confidential friend.

[26] Arbuthnot was first married on 28 February 1799 to Marcia Mary Anne Clapcott Lisle, at Cholmondeley House, Piccadilly.

These letters discuss also his nickname "Gosh", which spread from his familiar circle to being generally used, and mistaken for his surname; and his interest in John de Mainauduc, Irish-Huguenot practitioner of animal magnetism.

[32] Of Arthur Paget, Arbuthnot's replacement in 1807 at Constantinople, George Canning as incoming Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs in the second Portland administration wrote "I must send him to repair if possible the mischief poor Gosh has been doing there.