Regency Personalities Series-Charles Yorke 4th Earl of Hardwicke

Regency Personalities Series

In my attempts to provide us with the details of the Regency, today I continue with one of the many period notables.

Admiral Charles Phillip Yorke 4th Earl of Hardwicke
2 April 1799 – 17 September 1873

Charles Yorke

Charles Yorke 4th Earl of Hardwicke was born at Sydney Lodge, in Hamble le Rice, Hardwicke was the eldest son of Admiral Sir Joseph Sydney Yorke, second son of Charles Yorke, Lord Chancellor, by his second wife, Agneta Johnson. He was a nephew of Philip Yorke, 3rd Earl of Hardwicke. He was educated at Harrow and at the Royal Naval College, where he was awarded the second medal.

Hardwicke entered the Royal Navy in May 1815 as midshipman on HMS Prince, the flagship at Spithead. Later, he served in the Mediterranean, on HMS Sparrowhawk (18) and HMS Leviathan (74) then subsequently HMS Queen Charlotte (100), the flagship of Lord Exmouth, by whom he was entrusted with the command of a gunboat at the bombardment of Algiers. He later joined HMS Leander (60) under the flag of Sir David Milne, on the North American station, where he was given the command of the Jane, a small vessel carrying dispatches between Halifax and Bermuda. He was then appointed acting lieutenant of HMS Grasshopper (18) and after a few months commissioned in the rank of lieutenant in August 1819. The next October, he joined the frigate HMS Phaeton on the Halifax station, until appointed to the command of HMS Alacrity in 1823 on the Mediterranean station, in this post he was employed, before and after he obtained the rank of captain in 1825, in watching the movements of the Turko-Egyptian forces and in the suppression of piracy.

Between 1828 and 1831, he took command of HMS Alligator (28), on the same station and took an active part in the naval operation in connection with the struggle between Greece and Turkey. Lastly, between 1844 and 1845, for short periods, he assumed command of the steam yacht HMS Black Eagle and HMS St Vincent (120), in which he carried the Emperor of Russia, Nicholas I, to England. He attained flag rank in 1838. In 1849, while commanding HMS Vengeance, he participated in the repression of the republican rebellion of Genoa in support of the forces of the Kingdom of Sardinia. The Vengeance also fired on the Hospital of Pammatone, causing 107 civilian casualties. For these actions, he was decorated by the Sardinian King Victor Emmanuel II with two medals he was authorized to accept by Queen Victoria only in 1855. In 1858, he retired from the active list with the rank of rear-admiral, becoming vice-admiral in the same year, and admiral in 1863. He retired from the Royal Navy in 1870.

Hardwicke represented Reigate in the House of Commons between 1831 and 1832 and Cambridgeshire between 1832 and 1834. In 1834, on the death of his uncle, he became the fourth Earl of Hardwicke, and inherited the substantial Wimpole estate in Cambridgeshire. He was a member of Lord Derby’s cabinet in 1852 as Postmaster General and as Lord Privy Seal between 1858 and 1859. In 1852 he was sworn of the Privy Council.

Lord Hardwicke married the Honourable Susan Liddell, sixth daughter of Thomas Liddell, 1st Baron Ravensworth, in August 1833. They had five sons and three daughters. He died in September 1873, aged 74, and was succeeded in the earldom by his eldest son, Charles. The Countess of Hardwicke died in November 1886.

He also supposedly fathered an illegitimate child by one Charlotte Pratt, a serving girl at his Wimpole Hall home. Charlotte got married in 1849, and the following was noted in the marriage register:
The year before this marriage, 18-year-old servant girl Charlotte gave birth to a son, James Pratt, who was baptised on 2 April 1848. The father was understood to have been her employer, the 4th Earl of Hardwicke. “Charlotte… was a Pratt; and she was a picture. The handsomest woman that I ever remember to have seen. In harvest time to see her swinging along the road with a bundle of corn balanced on her head, both arms akimbo, was a study in colour, figure and poise”. – A.C.Yorke

Read Full Post »

Regency Personalities Series-Admiral Sir Joseph Sydney Yorke

Regency Personalities Series
In my attempts to provide us with the details of the Regency, today I continue with one of the many period notables.

Admiral Sir Joseph Sydney Yorke
6 June 1768 – 5 May 1831

Joseph Sydney Yorke

Admiral Sir Joseph Sydney Yorke was born in Great Berkhampstead, Hertfordshire, on 6 June 1768, the second son, by his second marriage, of the politician Charles Yorke. He joined the navy at the age of 11, becoming a midshipman aboard HMS Duke, then under the command of Sir Charles Douglas, on 15 February 1780. He followed Douglas to his next command, HMS Formidable, which flew the flag of Admiral George Rodney. Yorke was then present at Rodney’s victory over François Joseph Paul de Grasse at the Battle of the Saintes from 9 April to 12 April 1782. The end of the American Revolutionary War led to the Formidable returning to Britain to be paid off. Yorke remained in employment however, transferring with Douglas to HMS Assistance, and then moving to HMS Salisbury, under the command of Sir Erasmus Gower, filling the post of master’s mate. Yorke spent three years in total serving on the Newfoundland Station.

Yorke was promoted to lieutenant on 16 June 1789, and moved aboard the 50-gun HMS Adamant to serve under Admiral Sir Richard Hughes. He later served as lieutenant aboard HMS Thisbe and HMS Victory and in February 1791 he was appointed master and commander of the sloop HMS Rattlesnake. He remained aboard her, carrying out cruises into the English Channel until the outbreak of war with France in 1793. He was promoted to Post-Captain on 4 February 1793 and given command of the frigate HMS Circe, then part of a squadron under Admiral Richard Howe. He patrolled off the French port of Brest, and captured the corvette L’Espiegle.

Yorke moved to HMS Stag in August 1794, and continued to serve in the Channel, occasionally ranging into the North Sea. On 22 August the Stag and a small British squadron chased two large ships and a cutter, eventually bringing the sternmost one to battle. An hour-long fight ensued, after which the enemy, subsequently found to be the Batavian frigate Alliance, was forced to surrender. Yorke moved to command the newly built HMS Jason in March 1800, and by 1801 was in command of the 74-gun third rate HMS Canada. He commanded her until the Treaty of Amiens in 1802 brought a period of temporary peace. On the resumption of the war in 1803 Yorke was appointed to the 98-gun HMS Prince George, followed by HMS Barfleur and then HMS Christian VII, an 80-gun former Danish ship captured at the Battle of Copenhagen in 1807.

Yorke was knighted during this period of service, on 21 April 1805, by King George III. On 23 April, Yorke was present at the installation of the Knights of the Garter, standing in for his brother, Philip Yorke, Earl of Hardwicke. Philip was at this time Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, and so was unable to be present in person. In 1810 Joseph Yorke’s brother, Charles Philip Yorke became First Lord of the Admiralty and Joseph was transferred from command of the Christian VII to take up a seat on the Admiralty board.

Joseph Yorke was promoted to Rear-Admiral of the Blue on 31 July 1810 and hoisted his flag in the 74-gun HMS Vengeance in January 1811. He sailed to the Tagus carrying reinforcements for Arthur Wellesley’s army, fighting in the Peninsular War. After carrying this out he escorted a fleet returning to Britain from the East Indies. Yorke was promoted to Rear-Admiral of the White on 12 August 1812, Rear-Admiral of the Red on 4 December 1813, Vice-Admiral of the Blue on 14 June 1814, and served on the Admiralty board until resigning in April 1818. He was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in the restructuring of that order in January 1815, promoted Vice-Admiral of the White on 12 August 1819, and promoted to Admiral of the Blue on 22 July 1830.

Yorke stood as a candidate for the constituency of Reigate in 1790, and was returned as its member. He represented the borough until 1806, when he was elected as member for St Germans. He stood aside, “taking the Chiltern Hundreds” in 1810 so that his brother, Charles Philip Yorke, could be elected. In the 1812 general election Joseph Yorke stood as a candidate for Sandwich and was returned as its member. He represented the borough until 1818 when he was re-elected to the Reigate constituency, which he represented until his death. Yorke’s business interests include the chairmanship of the Waterloo Bridge Company.

On 29 March 1798, Yorke married Elizabeth Weake Rattray, the daughter of James Rattray, in Ireland. The couple had a number of children before Elizabeth’s death on 20 January 1812. His eldest son, Charles Yorke also served in the navy, rising to the rank of Admiral, and on the death without heir of Joseph Yorke’s brother Philip, the 3rd Earl of Hardwicke in 1834, Charles became the 4th Earl. On 22 May 1813, Joseph married a second time, to Urania Anne, the Dowager Marchioness of Clanricarde, and daughter of George Paulet, 12th Marquess of Winchester, at St. Martin in the Fields, Westminster, London. The marriage did not produce any children.

On 5 May 1831 Yorke was returning from visiting Henry Hotham’s flagship, HMS St Vincent, then moored at Spithead. He was making his way back to shore aboard the yacht Catherine, in company with Captains Matthew Barton Bradby and Thomas Young, and a seaman named John Chandler, when the boat was struck by lightning in Stokes Bay, causing it to capsize. All aboard were drowned. The bodies were later recovered and an inquest returned a verdict of accidental death. Yorke was buried at the family tomb in the parish church at Wimpole, close to Wimpole Hall, the seat of the Earls of Hardwicke.

Read Full Post »