Charles Jennens

Charles Jennens (1700 – 20 November 1773) was an English landowner and patron of the arts. As a friend of Handel, he helped author the libretti of several of his oratorios, most notably Messiah.

Life

Jennens was brought up at Gopsall Hall in Leicestershire, the son of Charles Jennens and his second wife, Elizabeth Burdett. He was educated at Balliol College, Oxford, matriculating in 1716, but did not graduate. A devout Christian and a non-juror, upholding the legitimacy of the deposed Stuart line. He became interested in "primitive Christianity" and John Chrysostom. Jennens has been identified as an anti-Deist.Richard Kidder's book A Demonstration of the Messias influenced him.

After his father's death in 1747, Jennens had Gopsall Hall completely rebuilt in the Palladian style, including within the estate an Ionic temple built in memory of his friend, the poet and classical scholar, Edward Holdsworth. Remaining unmarried, he was considered melancholic and extravagant, his neighbours calling him Suleyman the Magnificent. As a non-juror, Jennens was ineligible for any public appointment, and he devoted himself to the arts, both as a collector of fine art (his collection was one of the best in Britain at the time) and a music patron. George Friderick Handel's compositions were very much to his musical taste and they became close friends. Handel visited him frequently at Gopsall Hall and in 1749 provided the specification for an organ for his home.Thomas Hudson's portrait of Handel was commissioned by Jennens. – and the same artist's portrait of Charles Jennens is now in the Handel House Museum in London.