Joseph Yorke was born on 24 Jun 1724. He was the third son of Philip Yorke, 1st earl of Hardwicke and his wife, Margaret Cocks. He was commissioned into the 2nd Foot Guards (later the Coldstream Guards) on 25 April 1743 and served in the War of the Austrian Succession (1740-48) as ADC to the Duke of Cumberland. He was at the battle of Fontenoy on 11 May 1745. Later that month he was promoted to captain and Lieutenant-colonel (the Guards had a different system of ranking). On 1 Nov 1749 he was appointed ADC to the King.
1749 Appointed Secretary to the British Embassy in Paris
1751 Appointed Minister Plenipotentiary to the United Provinces (Netherlands) until c1780
1751 MP (Whig) for East Grinstead until 1761
1755 Colonel of the 9th Regiment of Foot 18 Mar 1755 - 22 Oct 1758
1758 Promoted to major-general
1758 Anglo-Prussian Convention
1758 Colonel of the 8th Dragoons 23 Oct 1758 - 26 Nov 1760
1760 Promoted to lieutenant-general
1760 Colonel of the 5th Royal Irish Dragoons 27 Nov 1760 - 3 April 1787
1761 Appointed Ambassador to France
1761 MP for Dover until 1774
1761 Appointed Knight Companion of the Order of the Bath (KB)
1768 Sworn onto the Privy Council
1774 MP for Grampound until 1780
1777 Promoted to General
1783 Married to Christiana Charlotte Margaret Henrik
1787 Colonel of the 11th Light Dragoons 4 April 1787 - 11 Mar 1789
1788 Raised to the peerage as Lord Dover
1789 Colonel of the 1st Life Guards 12 Mar 1789 - 2 Dec 1792
His marriage to Christina took place on 23 June 1783. She was the daughter of Baron de Stöcken, a Danish nobleman. There were no children. General Lord Dover died on 2 December 1792 at the age of 68. Christina died three months later. A memorial is on the wall of St Andrew’s Church, Wimpole, Cambridgeshire. The portrait shows him in 1770, painted by Joseph Samuel Webster. In the portrait he wears a velvet civilian coat which the artist has gone to great pains to show the fine detail of the gold embroidery. He wears a crimson sash of the Order of the Bath.
