Regency Personalities Series-Sir Henry Vane-Tempest

Regency Personalities Series

In my attempts to provide us with the details of the Regency (I include those who were born before 1811 and who died after 1795), today I continue with one of the many period notables.

Sir Henry Vane-Tempest
25 January 1771 – 1 August 1813

Henry Vane-Tempest

Sir Henry Vane-Tempest was the son and heir of Reverend Sir Henry Vane, 1st Baronet and his wife, Frances, née Tempest. He was Member of Parliament for the City of Durham from 1794 to 1800, replacing his uncle John Tempest from whom he inherited the Tempest estates in County Durham (notably Wynyard and Brancepeth) upon condition he adopt the name and arms of Tempest. He accepted the Chiltern Hundreds in 1800 before returning to Parliament as representative for the County Durham from 1807 until his death from apoplexy in 1813. He was appointed High Sheriff of Antrim in 1805.

Vane-Tempest inherited his father’s baronetcy in 1794. He was appointed lieutenant-colonel of the Durham volunteer cavalry in early 1797. On 25 April 1799, he married Anne MacDonnell, 2nd Countess of Antrim and they had one child, Lady Frances Anne Vane-Tempest (1800–1865), who married Lord Charles Stewart (later Marquess of Londonderry). On his death the baronetcy became extinct. He is buried at Long Newton.

Vane-Tempest was a renowned sportsman of his day, owning the celebrated racehorse Hambletonian. In a match with Mr. Cookson’s Diamond over the Beacon Course at Newmarket in 1799, Hambletonian won by a neck, Sir Henry having wagered 3,000 guineas on the outcome. The aftermath is the subject of George Stubbs’ painting “Hambletonian Rubbing Down“.

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Regency Personalities Series-Charles Towne

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.

Charles Towne
1763–1840

Charles Towne was born in Wigan, the son of Richard Town, a portrait-painter from Liverpool, and his wife Mary. His talent for art was apparent from a young age and he received some training from landscape painter John Rathbone in Leeds. He then worked as a coach and ornamental painter with his brother in Liverpool, and also worked for a time in Lancaster and Manchester. In 1785 he married Margaret Harrison, a widow.

In 1787 Towne exhibited a small landscape in an exhibition in Liverpool. By the 1790s he was an established animal painter with a style reminiscent of Stubbs. He lived in London from 1799 to 1804 during which time he exhibited at the Royal Academy. He also added a final ‘e’ to his name. He became a friend of fellow artists George Morland and De Loutherbourg.

Between 1799 and 1823 he exhibited twelve works at the Royal Academy and four at the British Institution. He returned to Liverpool in 1810, and was a founder member of the Liverpool Academy, becoming vice-president in 1812-13, and exhibiting his work there for several years on and off. He resided in Liverpool until 1837, when he apparently returned to London, dying there in 1840.

Towne painted landscapes and animals, and obtained great celebrity in Lancashire and Cheshire by his portraits of horses, dogs, and cattle. Many of his pictures were small, but occasionally he ventured into landscapes with cattle of larger size. He also painted in watercolour, and was a candidate for admission to the Watercolour Society in 1809.

He painted “Old Billy”, the longest-living horse on record, who pulled barges on the canals.

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Regency Personalities Series-Richard Grosvenor 1st Earl Grosvenor

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.

Richard Grosvenor 1st Earl Grosvenor
18 June 1731 – 5 August 1802

Richard Grosvenor

Richard Grosvenor was born at Eaton Hall, Cheshire, the elder son of Sir Robert Grosvenor, 6th Baronet. He was educated at Oriel College, Oxford, graduating MA in 1751 and DCL in 1754. He became Member of Parliament for Chester in 1754 and continued to represent the city until 1761, when he became Baron Grosvenor and was elevated to the House of Lords. He was mayor of Chester in 1759 and in 1769 he paid for the building of the Eastgate in the city. Grosvenor extended his estate by the purchase of the village of Belgrave, and the manor of Eccleston in 1769. He succeeded as 7th baronet on the death of his father in 1755.

On 19 July 1764 Grosvenor married Henrietta Vernon, daughter of Henry Vernon of Hilton Park, Staffordshire; they had four sons. However the marriage was not happy, and Henrietta had an affair with Henry, Duke of Cumberland, the younger brother of George III. The couple were discovered in flagrante delicto in 1769, which led to Grosvenor bringing an action against the Duke for “criminal conversation” (that is, adultery). He was awarded damages of £10,000, which together with costs, amounted to an award of £13,000. But Grosvenor was also known to be guilty of adultery himself, so he could not sue for divorce. The couple separated and he settled an annual allowance of £1,200 on his estranged wife, who entered the demi-monde and was a leading member of The New Female Coterie.

Initially Grosvenor was, like his father, a Tory, but later he came to support the ideas of William Pitt the elder. In 1758 he declared himself in favour of the Pitt-Newcastle coalition and following this he was created Baron Grosvenor in 1761. However when the Tory Earl of Bute became Prime Minister the following year, Grosvenor changed his allegiance. Then, when Pitt was returned to power in the Chatham Ministry of 1766–68, Grosvenor returned to support him. During the 1770s he supported North during the American War of Independence. He voted against Fox’s India Bill in 1783 and was rewarded by William Pitt the Younger with title of Earl Grosvenor the following year.

Otherwise Grosvenor was interested in the acquisition of art and in horse racing. He was also the principal patron of the satirist and journalist William Gifford. For his art collection he acquired works from Italy, and also bought paintings from Benjamin West (including his painting of The Death of General Wolfe), Thomas Gainsborough, Richard Wilson and George Stubbs. In 1788 a collection of literary pieces composed at Eaton was published as The Eaton Chronicle, or The Salt-Box. Grosvenor was appointed as a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1777. In order to breed his race horses Grosvenor established studs at Wallasey and at Eaton. His horses won the Derby on three occasions and the Oaks six times.

In the 1760s Grosvenor occupied Aubrey House, in the Campden Hill area of Holland Park. A London County Council blue plaque commemorates Grosvenor and other residents of the house.

Grosvenor died at Earls Court in 1802 and was buried in the family vault at St Mary’s Church, Eccleston. His assets amounted to “under £70,000”, but his debts were “over £100,000”. He was succeeded at Eaton Hall by his eldest son Robert

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Regency Personality Series–William Oxberry

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 Oxberry
18 December 1784 – 9 June 1824

William Oxberry

Oxberry was the son of an auctioneer, born on 18 December 1784 in Moorfields, London, opposite Bedlam. After a false start as a pupil of George Stubbs at age 14, he worked in a bookseller’s shop, and in the office in Tottenham Court Road of a printer named Seale, an amateur actor. At a stable near Queen Anne Street, and subsequently at the theatre in Berwick Street, he took on parts including Hassan in Castle Spectre (Monk Lewis) and Rosse in Macbeth.

Oxberry’s indentures were cancelled in 1802, and he appeared under Samuel Jerrold, at the Watford theatre. He joined, as low comedian, Trotter’s company (Worthing, Hythe, and Southend theatres).

In 1807 Henry Siddons recommended Oxberry to the Kemble management at Covent Garden Theatre. He made his first appearance on 7 November 1807 as Robin Roughhead in Fortune’s Frolic, but was not a critical success. At the close of the season he was released from his engagement, and went to Glasgow, where he made a success as Sir David Daw in the Wheel of Fortune. In Aberdeen he was tried as Michael Ducas in Adalgitha: he then played other tragic roles.

After returning to Glasgow, Oxberry accepted from Raymond an engagement in London at the Lyceum Theatre, then known as the English Opera House, and appeared in a piece by Henry Siddons, called ‘The Russian Impostor,’ in which he made a success.

He was then engaged for the Lyceum by Arnold. An engagement at Drury Lane Theatre followed. and he played for the first time with the burnt-out company at the Lyceum, in1809, as the Lay Brother in the ‘Duenna.’ After the opening of the new Drury Lane theatre his name is not mentioned until the end of the season. At Drury Lane he remained until the close of the season of 1819–20. He created many original parts in plays, dramatic or musical, by Arnold, Thomas John Dibdin, James Kenney, George Soane, and others.

Oxberry as a comic actor was not always a distinguished performer. He was compared only to John Emery as Tyke, John Lump, Robin Roughhead; his Slender, Sir David Daw, and Petro were held to have been unsurpassed. When Robert William Elliston reduced the salaries at Drury Lane, he refused the offer, and starred at minor theatres (the Surrey, the East London, and Sadler’s Wells).

Oxberry was for a long time manager of the Olympic, but the experiment collapsed. In December 1821 he took the Craven’s Head chophouse at Drury Lane, a house of literary and theatrical resort. Here he died 9 June 1824. His remains were interred in a vault in St. Clement Danes Church, Strand.

Oxberry was author of:

• ‘The Theatrical Banquet, or the Actor’s Budget,’ 1809, 2 vols.
• ‘The Encyclopædia of Anecdote,’ 1812.
• ‘The History of Pugilism, and Memoirs of Persons who have distinguished themselves in that Science,’ 1814.
• ‘The Flowers of Literature,’ 2nd edit., London, 1824, 4 vols.
• ‘Oxberry’s Anecdotes of the Stage,’ London, 1827.

He also edited ‘The New English Drama,’ consisting of 113 plays, with prefatory remarks, in 22 vols. 1818–24; and wrote ‘The Actress of All Work,’ played in Bath on 8 May 1819, in which Elizabeth Rebecca Edwin assumed half a dozen different characters. He converted ‘He would be a Soldier’ of Pilon into ‘The High Road to Success,’ and produced it at the Olympic. He was responsible for an adaptation of Walter Scott’s Marmion, played at an outlying theatre. For a short period he edited the ‘Monthly Mirror,’ to which, and to the ‘Cabinet,’ he contributed fugitive pieces.

A portrait of Oxberry by Dewilde, in the Garrick Club, shows him as Petro in Arnold’s ‘Devil’s Bridge.’ An engraving of him as Leo Luminati in ‘Oh! this Love’ is in the ‘Theatrical Inquisitor’ (vol. i.); and a second, presenting him in private dress, is in Oxberry’s ‘Dramatic Biography,’ a work projected by Oxberry, and edited after his death by his widow; it was published in parts, beginning 1 Jan. 1825. After the completion of the first volume in April 1825 the issue was continued in volumes, and was completed in five vols. in 1826.

In 1806 Oxberry married, at Southend, a young actress playing minor parts in the Trotter company, Catherine Elizabeth Hewitt.

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Regency Personalities Series-Charles Lennox 3rd Duke of Richmond

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.

Charles Lennox 3rd Duke of Richmond
February 22 1735-December 29 1806

The Duke of Richmond

From birth he was known as the Earl of March. He was educated at the Westminster School and became Duke of Richmond and Lennox in 1750. His sisters were the famous four, Caroline Lennox, Emily, Louisa and Sarah. Charles was thus the uncle of many famous people including Charles James Fox. Charles was the great-grandson of Charles II.

Charles Lennox, 3rd Duke of Richmond

Charles was commissioned in the 2nd Foot Guards in 1751, and made lieutenant-colonel of the 33rd Regiment of Foot in 1756. In 1758 he was made Colonel of the 72nd Regiment of Foot. His younger brother George Lennox took command of the 33rd. Charles fought during the Seven Year’s War. After he was appointed an ambassador to Paris. He served the government in the Rockingham Whig administration.

In the debates that led to the war with the Americans, Charles supported the Colonists. He initiated the debate that called for the removal of British Troops in 1778. Charles also advocated a policy of concession to Ireland. It was the Duke who originated the phrase, “A Union of Hearts.” When Rockingham came back to power Charles was Master-General of the Ordnance. In 1784 he became a member of William Pitt’s ministry. He switched to Tory beliefs. He left no legitimate children so his nephew Charles inherited. He was a patron of several artists such as George Stubbs, Pompeo Batoni, Anton Raphael Mengs, Joshua Reynolds, George Romney and George Smith of Chichester.

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