Regency Personalities Series-George Howard 7th Earl of Carlisle

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.

George Howard 7th Earl of Carlisle
18 April 1802 – 5 December 1864

George Howard

George Howard 7th Earl of Carlisle was born in Westminster, London, the eldest son of George Howard, 6th Earl of Carlisle by his wife Lady Georgiana Cavendish, eldest daughter of William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire. Lord Lanerton and Charles Howard were his younger brothers. He was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, where he earned a reputation as a scholar and writer of graceful verse, obtaining in 1821 both the chancellor’s and the Newdigate prizes for a Latin poem, Paestum, and an English one. He maintained his interest in poetry throughout his life, exchanging sonnets with William Wordsworth. In 1826 he accompanied his maternal grandfather, the Duke of Devonshire, to the Russian Empire, to attend the coronation of Tsar Nicholas I, and became a great favourite in society at St Petersburg.

At the general election in 1826 Carlisle was returned to parliament as member for the family borough of Morpeth (in Northumberland), a seat he held until 1830, and then represented Yorkshire until 1832 and the West Riding of Yorkshire from 1832 to 1841 and from 1846 to 1848. The latter year he succeeded his father in the earldom and entered the House of Lords.

Carlisle served under Lord Melbourne as Chief Secretary for Ireland between 1835 and 1841, under Lord John Russell as First Commissioner of Woods and Forests from 1846 to 1850 and as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster from 1850 to 1852 and under Lord Palmerston as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland from 1855 to 1858 and again from 1859 to 1864. In 1835 he was appointed to the Privy Councils of the United Kingdom and Ireland. On 2 April 1853, he was given the Freedom of the City of Edinburgh, and in 1855, he was made a Knight of the Garter.

Lord Carlisle died unmarried at Castle Howard in December 1864, aged 62, and was buried in the family mausoleum. He was succeeded in the earldom by his younger brother, Reverend William George Howard.

Read Full Post »

Regency Personalities Series-Harriet Sutherland-Leveson-Gower Duchess of Sutherland

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.

Harriet Sutherland-Leveson-Gower Duchess of Sutherland
21 May 1806 – 27 October 1868

Harriet Sutherland-Leveson-Gower

Harriet Elizabeth Georgiana Sutherland-Leveson-Gower Duchess of Sutherland was the third daughter of George Howard, 6th Earl of Carlisle and his wife Lady Georgiana Cavendish, who was a daughter of the famous Georgiana, Duchess of Devonshire.

On 28 May 1823 she was married to her cousin George Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, Earl Gower, who had been elected M.P. for St. Mawes, Cornwall, in 1808, and succeeded his father as second Duke of Sutherland in 1833. Gower was twenty years older than her, but their union proved one of affection and produced four sons and seven daughters.

The Duchess of Sutherland held a social position of high influence, aided by her friendship to Queen Victoria as well as her family’s great wealth. By the Duchess’ influence Stafford House, St. James’s Palace, became an important centre of society, and the starting-point of various philanthropic undertakings. There the protest of the English ladies against American slavery was framed in 1853. The Duchess stance on slavery was heavily criticised by Karl Marx when her mother-in-law, the previous Duchess was then (1853) associated for the Highland Clearance of local Gaels in Sutherlandshire three decades prior, so that she could reuse 794,000 acres of land for commercial sheep farming.

On the accession of Queen Victoria the Duchess was appointed Mistress of the Robes, and held that post when the Whigs were in office until her husband’s death. From the Queen’s refusal to part with the Duchess and her other ladies arose the Bedchamber Crisis of 1839, with the result that the Whigs returned to office. Victoria gave a sympathetic description of the Duchess’s character, and after the death of Prince Albert, the prince consort, spent the first weeks of her widowhood with the Duchess as her solitary companion.

In 1861 the 4th Rogart Company of the 1st Sutherland Volunteer Rifle Corps formed up and bore the title, Duchess Harriet’s Company Rogart upon the pouch-belt plate.

The Duchess’s last public appearance was at the Prince of Wales’s marriage in 1863. In that year she was seized with an illness from which she never recovered. However, she was able to entertain Garibaldi, for whom she had great admiration, at Chiswick House and Trentham, Staffordshire, during his visit to England in April 1864. She died 27 October 1868, at her London residence, Stafford House, aged 62. She was subsequently interred in the Dukes of Sutherland’s mausoleum in Trentham. Gladstone was one of the pall-bearers at her funeral. The Duchess’s letters, of which a selection was published by her son Lord Ronald Gower, prove her to have been possessed of an affectionate disposition, with some sense of humour. She had also an interest in architecture and gardening.

On 18 May 1823 Harriet married George Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, Earl Gower, eldest son of the 2nd Marquess of Stafford, and a man twenty years her senior. Her father-in-law was created Duke of Sutherland in 1833, and was succeeded by his son later that year, whereupon Harriet became the Duchess of Sutherland.

They had eleven children:

• Lady Elizabeth Georgiana, married George Douglas Campbell, 8th Duke of Argyll and had issue.
• Lady Evelyn, married Charles Stuart, 12th Lord Blantyre
• Lady Caroline Leveson-Gower, married Charles FitzGerald, 4th Duke of Leinster and had issue.
• Lord George Granville William, succeeded as 3rd Duke.
• Lady Blanche Julia Sutherland-Leveson-Gower
• Lord Frederick George
• Lady Constance Gertrude, married Hugh Grosvenor, 1st Duke of Westminster and had issue.
• Lady Victoria Sutherland-Leveson-Gower
• Lord Albert, married Grace Abdy, daughter of Sir Thomas Neville Abdy, 1st Baronet and had issue, including Frederick Neville Sutherland Leveson-Gower.
• Lord Ronald Charles Sutherland-Leveson-Gower
• Lady Alexandrina Sutherland-Leveson-Gower

In 1871, while her son-in-law, the Duke of Argyll, was serving in the Cabinet, his son (Harriet’s grandson), Lord Lorne, married one of Victoria’s daughters, Princess Louise. Harriet’s eldest son became 3rd Duke of Sutherland in 1861. Her children were respectively a Duke, and three Duchesses.

Read Full Post »

Regency Personalities Series-William Cavendish 7th Duke of Devonshire

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.

William Cavendish 7th Duke of Devonshire
27 April 1808 – 21 December 1891

William Cavendish

William Cavendish 7th Duke of Devonshire was the son of William Cavendish, eldest son of George Cavendish, 1st Earl of Burlington, third son of William Cavendish, 4th Duke of Devonshire and Lady Charlotte Boyle, daughter of Richard Boyle, 3rd Earl of Burlington. His mother was the Honourable Louisa O’Callaghan (d. 1863), daughter of Cornelius O’Callaghan, 1st Baron Lismore. He was educated at Eton and the University of Cambridge (Trinity College), attaining the position of Second Wrangler and the Smith’s Prize for mathematics. He became known by the courtesy title Lord Cavendish of Keighley in 1831 when the earldom of Burlington was revived in favour of his grandfather.

Cavendish was returned to parliament as the MP for Cambridge University in 1829, a seat he held until July 1831, when he was returned for Malton. He only sat for Malton until September of the same year and was out of the House of Commons until 1832, when he was returned for North Derbyshire. He succeeded his grandfather in the earldom of Burlington in 1834 and entered the House of Lords. In 1858 he also succeeded his cousin as Duke of Devonshire. He was Lord-Lieutenant of Lancashire from 1857 to 1891 and Lord-Lieutenant of Derbyshire from 1858 to 1891.

Devonshire was Chancellor of the University of London from 1836 to 1856, and then Chancellor of the University of Cambridge from 1861 to 1891. At Cambridge he endowed the Cavendish Professorship of Physics, and the building of the Cavendish Laboratory. He made vast (and ultimately unsuccessful) investments in heavy industry at Barrow-in-Furness, and had his nearby country house Holker Hall rebuilt in its present form after it was gutted by a fire in 1871. He was one of the original founders of the Royal Agricultural Society in 1839, and was president in 1870. On 26 July 1871, he was nominated a trustee of the British Museum.

The 7th Duke inherited a considerable amount of property in Eastbourne from his grandfather, and from his wife Elizabeth Compton of Compton Place. He saw through the development of Eastbourne in the 19th century with its parks, baths and squares and is commemorated by a statue at the top of Devonshire Place. The Duke also played a part in the foundation of Eastbourne College, the local independent school, by selling some of his land at a modest price to build the school on and commissioning respected architect Henry Currey to design the school chapel and College House (now the School House, a boarding facility).

Devonshire married Blanche Georgiana Howard (11 January 1812 – 27 April 1840), daughter of George Howard, 6th Earl of Carlisle and Georgiana Cavendish, sister of the 6th Duke of Devonshire, known at the “Bachelor Duke”, in 1829. Blanche was the Bachelor Duke’s favourite niece, and his fondness for the young couple who were his heirs may have contributed to his decision not to marry himself. He commemorated Blanche with an inscription in the Painted Hall at Chatsworth, which states that he completed his reconstruction of the house in the year of his bereavement, 1840, and by Blanche’s Urn at the top of the Long Walk in the garden.

The Duke’s three surviving sons became distinguished politicians; the eldest, known after 1858 by the courtesy title Marquess of Hartington, led the Liberal Party and was asked three times to be Prime Minister by Queen Victoria; Lord Frederick Cavendish was briefly Chief Secretary for Ireland and was assassinated in 1882; Lord Edward Cavendish was MP for West Derbyshire. He also had one son, Hon. William (8 October 1831 – 15 May 1834) who died as an infant, and a daughter, Lady Louisa Caroline (d. 21 September 1907), who married Admiral the Honourable Francis Egerton.

Read Full Post »

Regency Personalities Series-George Sutherland-Leveson-Gower 2nd Duke of Sutherland

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.

George Sutherland-Leveson-Gower 2nd Duke of Sutherland
8 August 1786 – 22 February 1861

George Sutherland-Leveson-Gower

George Sutherland-Leveson-Gower 2nd Duke of Sutherland who was born at Portland Place, London was the eldest son of George Leveson-Gower, 1st Duke of Sutherland and his wife Elizabeth Gordon, de jure Countess of Sutherland.

He was educated at Harrow School between 1798 and 1803, then entered Christ Church, Oxford, where he graduated B.A. in 1806 and M.A. in 1810. In 1841 he was made D.C.L. by the same university.
His father died in 1833, only six months after being created Duke of Sutherland by William IV for his support of the Reform Act 1832, and so this new title devolved on his eldest son. His mother, who was 19th Countess of Sutherland in her own right, died in 1839, and so her ancient Scottish title passed to George, who also became 20th Earl of Sutherland. As a result, the two titles became united in the same person until 1963. It was the 2nd Duke who assumed the additional surname of Sutherland so that his family name became Sutherland-Leveson-Gower.

Between 1806 and 1808, Earl Gower travelled in Prussia and Russia. During the Prussian campaign against Napoleon’s French forces, he spent time at the Prussians’ general headquarters.

After returning from Europe, Earl Gower entered the Commons as M.P. for the Cornwall rotten borough of St Mawes in 1808. In 1812, he transferred to sit for the Staffordshire borough of Newcastle-Under-Lyme, until 1815, when he stood to become one of the county M.P.s for Staffordshire, sitting until 1820.
He was also Lord Lieutenant for the County of Sutherland from 1831 until his death, was appointed High Steward of the Borough of Stafford in 1833, and was Lord Lieutenant of Shropshire from 1839 to 1845.
He was made K.G. in 1841.

Sutherland took part in a first-class cricket match in 1816, playing for E. H. Budd’s XI and totalling 4 runs with a highest score of 4.

He was a keen book collector and was one of the founder members of the Roxburghe Club in 1812.
He was a trustee of the National Gallery from 1835 and of the British Museum from 1841 to his death, as well as appointed a Fine Arts Commissioner in 1841.

Sutherland was partially deaf and therefore decided not to play a very active part in politics which was the path well worn by his contemporary peers. Instead he expended his energies by spending some of his vast wealth which he inherited from his father on improving his homes. In 1845 he employed Sir Charles Barry to make vast alterations to Dunrobin Castle. Barry transformed the place into the 189 room ducal palace which we see today. In addition to Dunrobin, the Duke also had Barry completely remodel his Staffordshire seat of Trentham Hall, Cliveden House in Buckinghamshire, and the family’s London townhouse, Stafford House, which was the most valuable private home in the whole of London.

The Duke died, aged seventy-five, at Trentham Hall in Staffordshire, one of his English mansions. He is buried at St George’s Church Cemetery, Telford, Shropshire.

Sutherland married Lady Harriet Elizabeth Georgiana Howard (1806 – 27 October 1868), daughter of George Howard, 6th Earl of Carlisle, on 28 May 1823. They had eleven children, seven daughters and four sons:

• Lady Elizabeth Georgiana (30 May 1824-25 May 1878), married George Douglas Campbell, 8th Duke of Argyll and had issue.
• Lady Evelyn Leveson-Gower (8 August 1825-24 Nov 1869), married Charles Stuart, 12th Lord Blantyre
• Lady Caroline Leveson-Gower (15 April 1827-13 May 1887), married Charles FitzGerald, 4th Duke of Leinster and had issue.
• Lord George Granville William (19 December 1828-22 September 1892), succeeded as 3rd Duke.
• Lady Blanche Julia Sutherland-Leveson-Gower (26 June 1830-24 February 1832)
• Lord Frederick George Leveson-Gower (11 November 1832- 6 Oct 1854)
• Lady Constance Leveson-Gower (later Sutherland-Leveson-Gower in 1841)(16 Jun 1834-19 Dec 1880), married Hugh Grosvenor, 1st Duke of Westminster and had issue.
• Lady Victoria Sutherland-Leveson-Gower (16 May 1838-19 June 1839)
• Lord Albert (21 Nov 1843–1874), married Grace Abdy, daughter of Sir Thomas Neville Abdy, 1st Baronet and had issue, including Frederick Neville Sutherland Leveson-Gower.
• Lord Ronald Charles Sutherland-Leveson-Gower (2 August 1845–9 March 1916), died unmarried.
• Lady Alexandrina Sutherland-Leveson-Gower (03 Feb 1848-21 June 1849)

Read Full Post »

Regency Personalities Series-Frederick Howard 5th Earl of Carlisle

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.

Frederick Howard 5th Earl of Carlisle
28 May 1748 – 4 September 1825

Frederick Howard

Frederick Howard 5th Earl of Carlisle was a British diplomat and the son of Henry Howard, 4th Earl of Carlisle and his second wife Isabella Byron.

His mother was a daughter of William Byron, 4th Baron Byron and a great-aunt of George Gordon Byron, 6th Baron Byron, the poet. In 1798, Carlisle was appointed guardian to Lord Byron who later lampooned him in English Bards and Scotch Reviewers.

During his youth Carlisle was mentored by George Selwyn and was chiefly known as a man of pleasure and fashion. He was created a Knight of the Thistle in 1767.

After he had reached thirty years of age, his appointment on a Commission sent out by Frederick North, Lord North to attempt a reconciliation with the Thirteen Colonies during the American War of Independence was received with sneers by the opposition. The failure of the embassy was not the earl’s fault, but the Rebels not wanting to treat with England. He was, indeed, considered to have displayed so much ability that he was entrusted with the viceroyalty of Ireland in 1780.

The time was one of the greatest difficulty; for while the calm of the country was disturbed by the American rebellion, it was drained of regular troops, and large bands of volunteers not under the control of the government had been formed. Nevertheless, the two years of Carlisle’s rule passed in quiet and prosperity, and the institution of a national bank and other measures which he effected left permanently beneficial results upon the commerce of the island.

In 1789, in the discussions as to the regency, Carlisle took a prominent part on the side of the prince of Wales.

In 1791 he opposed William Pitt the Younger’s policy of resistance to the dismemberment of the Ottoman Empire by Imperial Russia; but on the outbreak of the French Revolution he left the opposition and vigorously maintained the cause of war. He resigned from the Order of the Thistle and was created a Knight of the Garter in 1793. In 1815 he opposed the enactment of the Corn Laws; but from this time till his death, he took no important part in public life.

In 1798 he was one of the syndicate who bought the Orleans Collection of paintings, many of which remain in Castle Howard.

Carlisle was the author of some political tracts, a number of poems, and two tragedies:

1. Poems, London, 1773
2. The Father’s Revenge (a tragedy in five acts), London, 1783
3. To Sir J. Reynolds, (verses), London, 1790
4. A Letter to Earl FitzWilliam, London, 1795
5. The Crisis, London, 1798
6. Unite or Fall, London, 1798
7. The Stepmother, (a tragedy), London, 1800
8. The Tragedies and Poems of Frederick, Earl of Carlisle, London, 1801
9. Verses on the Death on Lord Nelson, London, 1806
10. Thoughts on the present Condition of the Stage, London, 1808
11. Miscellanies, London, 1820

In 1770, Frederick married Margaret Caroline Leveson-Gower. Margaret was a daughter of Granville Leveson-Gower, 1st Marquess of Stafford and his wife Louisa, who was in turn daughter of Scroop Egerton, 1st Duke of Bridgewater.
They were parents to ten children:

• Lady Isabella Caroline Howard (1771–1848), married John Campbell, 1st Baron Cawdor
• George Howard, 6th Earl of Carlisle (1773–1848)
• Lady Charlotte Howard
• Lady Susan Maria Howard
• Lady Louisa Howard (1778–1781)
• Lady Elizabeth Howard, married John Manners, 5th Duke of Rutland
• Hon. William Howard (1781–1843), Member of Parliament
• Lady Gertrude Howard (1783–1870), married William Sloane-Stanley        
• Maj. Hon. Frederick Howard, married Frances Susan Lambton
• Hon. Henry Edward John Howard (1795–1868), married and had issue

Read Full Post »

Regency Personalities Series-George Agar-Ellis 1st Baron Dover

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.

George Agar-Ellis 1st Baron Dover
14 January 1797 – 10 July 1833

George Agar-Ellis

Agar-Ellis was the only son of Henry Agar-Ellis, 2nd Viscount Clifden, and Lady Caroline, daughter of George Spencer, 4th Duke of Marlborough. Educated at Westminster School and Christ Church, Oxford. He was elected a Fellow of both the Society of Antiquaries and Royal Society in 1816.

Agar-Ellis sat in Parliament for Heytesbury in 1818 to1820, then Seaford between 1820 and 1826, Ludgershall 1826-1830 and finally Okehampton 1830 – 1831.

He supported George Canning’s motion in 1822 for a bill to relieve the disabilities of Roman Catholic peers, and consistently supported liberal principles. He took little interest in party politics but was a strong advocate of state support for the causes of literature and the fine arts.

In 1824 Agar-Ellis was the leading promoter of the grant of £57,000 for the purchase of John Julius Angerstein’s collection of pictures, which formed the foundation of the National Gallery. On the formation of Lord Grey’s Whig administration in November 1830, he was sworn of the Privy Council and appointed First Commissioner of Woods and Forests. He resigned after two months due to bad health.

In June 1831, during his father’s lifetime, Agar-Ellis was raised to the peerage as Baron Dover, of Dover in the County of Kent. He was president of the Royal Society of Literature in 1832, a trustee of the British Museum and of the National Gallery, and a commissioner of public records.

Lord Dover married Lady Georgiana Howard, daughter of George Howard, 6th Earl of Carlisle, in 1822. They had two sons, who became respectively the 3rd Viscount and 5th Viscount, and two daughters. He died on the 10 July 1833. Lady Dover died in March 1860.

Lord Dover’s works were chiefly historical, and include:

• The True History of the Iron Mask, extracted from Documents in The French Archives (1826)
• Inquiries respecting the Character of Clarendon (1827)
• a Life of Frederick II. (1831)

He also edited the Ellis Correspondence (1829) and Walpole’s Letters to Sir Horace Mann (1833).

Read Full Post »

Regency Personalities Series-George Howard 6th Earl of Carlisle

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.

George Howard 6th Earl of Carlisle
17 September 1773 – 7 October 1848

George Howard 6th Earl of Carlisle

Carlisle was the eldest son of Frederick Howard, 5th Earl of Carlisle, and his wife Lady Margaret Caroline Leveson-Gower, daughter of Granville Leveson-Gower, 1st Marquess of Stafford and his wife Lady Louisa, daughter of Scroop Egerton, 1st Duke of Bridgewater. He was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford.

Carlisle was returned to parliament for Morpeth in 1795, a seat he held until 1806, and then represented Cumberland until 1820. In 1806 he was sworn of the Privy Council. In 1825 he succeeded his father in the earldom and entered the House of Lords. He served in the moderate Tory governments of George Canning and Lord Goderich as First Commissioner of Woods and Forests between May and July 1827 and as Lord Privy Seal (with a seat in the cabinet) between July 1827 and January 1828. However, he split with the Tories over electoral reform and later served as a member of the cabinet in the Whig administrations of Lord Grey and Lord Melbourne as Minister without Portfolio between 1830 and 1834 and once again as Lord Privy Seal between July and November 1834.

Apart from his political career Lord Carlisle was Lord Lieutenant of the East Riding of Yorkshire between 1824 and 1840. He was made a Knight of the Garter in 1837.

Lord Carlisle married Lady Georgiana Cavendish, daughter of William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire and Lady Georgiana Spencer, in 1801. They were parents of twelve children:

• George Howard, 7th Earl of Carlisle
• Lady Caroline Georgiana Howard. She married William Lascelles
• Lady Georgiana Howard. She married George Agar-Ellis, 1st Baron Dover
• Hon. Frederick George Howard
• Lady Harriet Elizabeth Georgina Howard. She married George Sutherland-Leveson-Gower, 2nd Duke of Sutherland
• William George Howard, 8th Earl of Carlisle
• Edward Granville George Howard, 1st Baron Lanerton. He married Diana Ponsonby, daughter of the Hon. George Ponsonby
• Lady Blanche Georgiana Howard. She married William Cavendish, 7th Duke of Devonshire
• Hon. Charles Wentworth George Howard. He married Mary Parke, daughter of James Parke, Baron Wensleydale. They were parents of George Howard, 9th Earl of Carlisle
• Lady Elizabeth Dorothy Anne Howard. She married Reverend Francis Richard Grey, son of Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey
• Hon. Henry George Howard. On 29 May 1845, he married Mary Wellesley McTavish, daughter of John McTavish, British Consul at Baltimore, and his wife, Emily. The couple wed from the house of her aunt, the Marchioness Wellesley. He served as Secretary of the British Embassy in Paris. His wife died in Paris 21 February 1850, in her 23rd year.
• Lady Mary Matilda Georgiana Howard. She married Henry Labouchere, 1st Baron Taunton

Lord Carlisle died at Castle Howard, Yorkshire, in October 1848, aged 75, and was succeeded in the earldom by his eldest son, George. The Countess of Carlisle died at Castle Howard in August 1858, aged 75.

Read Full Post »