We are now come to a new epoch in the Doctor's life; but there is an interval of a few years to be accounted for, before he found an opportunity of effectually removing himself into Derbyshire.
His Wife being dead, his Children young and at school, and himself reduced to a life of solitude, so ungenial to his temper (though no man was better qualified to improve his leisure); he found relief by the kind offer of his valuable Friend, Sir Edward Dering, Bart.
At this moment Sir Edward chose to place his Son[12] under the care of a private Tutor at home, to qualify him more competently for the University. Sir Edward's personal knowledge of Mr. Pegge, added to the Family situation of the latter, mutually induced the former to offer, and the latter to accept, the proposal of removing from Godmersham to Surrenden (Sir Edward's mansion-house) to superintend Mr. Dering's education for a short time; in which capacity he continued about a year and a half, till Mr. Dering was admitted of St. John's College, Cambridge, in March 1751.
[12] Afterwards Sir Edward Dering, the sixth Baronet of that Family, who died Dec. 8, 1798.
Sir Edward had no opportunity, by any patronage of his own, permanently to gratify Mr. Pegge, and to preserve him in the circle of their common Friends. On the other hand, finding Mr. Pegge's propensity to a removal so very strong, Sir Edward reluctantly pursued every possible measure to effect it.
The first vacant living in Derbyshire which offered itself was the Perpetual Curacy of _Brampton_, near Chesterfield; a situation peculiarly eligible in many respects. It became vacant in 1747; and, if it could have been obtained, would have placed Mr. Pegge in the centre of his early acquaintance in that County; and, being tenable with his Kentish living, would not have totally estranged him from his Friends in the South of England. The patronage of Brampton is in the Dean of Lincoln, which Dignity was then filled by the Rev. Dr. Thomas Cheyney; to whom, Mr. Pegge being a stranger, the application was necessarily to be made in a circuitous manner, and he was obliged to employ more than a double mediation before his name could be mentioned to the Dean.
The mode he proposed was through the influence of William the third Duke of Devonshire; to whom Mr. Pegge was personally known as a Derbyshire man (though he had so long resided in Kent), having always paid his respects to his Grace on the public days at Chatsworth, as often as opportunity served, when on a visit in Derbyshire. Mr. Pegge did not, however, think himself sufficiently in the Duke's favour to make a direct address for his Grace's recommendation to the Dean of Lincoln, though the object so fully met his wishes in moderation, and in every other point. He had, therefore, recourse to a friend, the Right Rev. Dr. Fletcher, Bishop of Dromore, then in England; who, in conjunction with Godfrey Watkinson, of Brampton Moor, Esq. (the principal resident Gentleman in the parish of Brampton) solicited, and obtained, his Grace's interest with the Dean of Lincoln: who, in consequence, nominated Mr. Pegge to the living.