Regency Personalities Series-Arthur Wellesley 2nd Duke of Wellington

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.

Lieutenant-General Arthur Richard Wellesley 2nd Duke of Wellington
3 February 1807 – 13 August 1884

Arthur Wellesley

Arthur Wellesley 2nd Duke of Wellington was born at Harley Street, Soho, London, the eldest son of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, and the Honourable Catherine Sarah Dorothea “Kitty” Pakenham, daughter of Edward Pakenham, 2nd Baron Longford. Lord Charles Wellesley was his younger brother and Lord Wellesley, Lord Mornington and Lord Cowley his uncles. He was educated at Temple Grove School, Eton College, Christ Church, Oxford, and Trinity College, Cambridge. He became known by the courtesy title Lord Douro when his father was created Earl of Wellington in 1812 and as Marquess of Douro in 1814 after his father was elevated to a dukedom. He was a Page of Honour from 1818 to 1821.

Lord Douro became an ensign in the 81st Regiment of Foot in 1823 and in the 71st (Highland) Regiment of Foot in 1825, a cornet in the Royal Horse Guards in 1825, a lieutenant in the Royal Horse Guards in 1827, a captain in the Royal Horse Guards in 1828 and in the King’s Royal Rifle Corps the same year, a major in the King’s Royal Rifle Corps in 1830 and in the Rifle Brigade in 1831, a lieutenant-colonel on the unattached list in 1834, a brevet colonel in 1846, a lieutenant-colonel in the Victoria (Middlesex) Rifle Volunteer Corps in 1853 and a major-general in 1854.

Lord Douro was returned to parliament for Aldeburgh in 1829, a seat he held until 1832. He was out of parliament until 1837, when he was returned for Norwich. In 1852 he succeeded his father in the dukedom and entered the House of Lords. In early 1853 he was sworn of the Privy Council and appointed Master of the Horse in Lord Aberdeen’s coalition government, a post he retained when Lord Palmerston became prime minister in 1855. He resigned along with the rest of the Palmerston government in 1858. The latter year he was made a Knight of the Garter.

In 1863 Wellington inherited the earldom of Mornington on the death of his cousin William Pole-Tylney-Long-Wellesley, 5th Earl of Mornington. From 1868 to 1884 he was Lord-Lieutenant of Middlesex.

Wellington married Lady Elizabeth Hay, daughter of Field Marshal George Hay, 8th Marquess of Tweeddale, in 1839. They had no children. The marriage was not a happy one although Lady Elizabeth was a great favourite with her father-in-law. On succeeding his illustrious father he was said to have remarked: “Imagine what it will be when the Duke of Wellington is announced, and only I walk in the room.” The relationship between father and son is often described as the classic case of the son of a famous father who is never able to live up to his legacy. Wellington died at Brighton Railway Station, Brighton, Sussex, in August 1884, aged 77, and was buried at the family seat Stratfield Saye House, Hampshire. He was succeeded by his nephew, Henry. The Duchess of Wellington died at Bearhill Park, Walton-on-Thames, Surrey, in August 1903, aged 83, and was buried at Stratfield Saye House.

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Regency Personalities Series-William Pole-Tylney-Long-Wellesley 4th Earl of Mornington

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 Pole-Tylney-Long-Wellesley 4th Earl of Mornington
22 June 1788 – 1 July 1857

William Pole-Tylney-Long-Wellesley

William Pole-Tylney-Long-Wellesley 4th Earl of Mornington was born on 22 June 1788 in London and baptised at St George’s, Hanover Square, on 19 July, the son of William Wesley and his wife Katherine-Elizabeth Forbes. The Wesley family changed their surname to the more Anglicised ‘Wellesley’ in the early 1790s.

On 14 January 1812, several weeks in advance of his marriage on 14 March 1812 to Catherine, daughter and co-heiress of Sir James Tylney-Long, 7th Baronet, of Draycot, Wiltshire, William Wellesley-Pole assumed the additional surnames of Tylney-Long, changing his name by Royal Licence. His wife was known in fashionable London society as “The Wiltshire Heiress”, Catherine was believed to be the richest commoner in England. Her estates in Essex, Hampshire, and Wiltshire, were said to be worth £40,000 per year in rents – over two million pounds per year at current values. She also had financial investments in hand worth £300,000, and had been sought in marriage by the Duke of Clarence, later King William IV. William brought nothing to the Union but his substantial debts and his personal charms, and he even forgot the ring.

During this period, William enjoyed a political career, first as a Tory Member of Parliament for the pocket borough of St Ives from 1812 until 1818, and then for Wiltshire, where his wife’s family was influential. However, he was principally known for his dissipation and extravagance. On one occasion in 1814, Long-Wellesley held a grand fête in Wanstead House and its gardens to celebrate his uncle the Duke of Wellington’s victory over Napoleon, attended by the Prince Regent, a number of other members of the royal family, and over a thousand dignitaries. He was also known to be a friend of the Irish poet Thomas Moore and of Lord Byron. On 8 August 1822, as his debts began to mount, he was appointed a Gentleman Usher to King George IV, an appointment which rendered him immune to arrest for debt, but he was soon to leave England entirely.

While in Europe evading his creditors, Long-Wellesley began a relationship with Helena Paterson Bligh (d. 7 April 1869), the wife of Captain Thomas Bligh of the Coldstream Guards, eventually abandoning Catherine, who died two years later on 12 September 1825. Catherine had implied in a letter to her sisters that her husband had given her a venereal disease. Long-Wellesley subsequently married Helena in 1828, but this marriage also proved disastrous. Long-Wellesley, a notorious rake, was generally charged with having dissipated his first wife’s property, but this he had been unable to do, having only a life interest in it, although he was responsible for the demolition of Wanstead House, the proceeds of which covered only some of his enormous debts.

He returned to Parliament in 1830, again as a member for St Ives, and as knight of the shire for Essex from 1831 to 1832. He was one of the Tories who broke with the first Wellington Ministry and brought about its fall on 15 November 1830.

In the years following Catherine’s death, Long-Wellesley sought control over his children, who were in the care of Catherine’s two unmarried sisters, Dorothy and Emma. He was especially interested in William, the eldest, on whom Catherine’s fortune had devolved. His uncle the Duke of Wellington, fighting one of his furious defensive actions, intervened on behalf of the children to keep the hapless William from his father’s clutches. Deprived of the custody of his children by the Court of Chancery, Long-Wellesley was committed to the Fleet prison by Lord Brougham in July 1831 for contempt of court; Long-Wellesley invoked parliamentary privilege, but his plea was rejected by the committee of privileges of the House of Commons. For some time he was in and out of court on charges of libel, and various other matters relating to his quest for custody of his children.

He led a very dissipated life and lived for a time in Brussels to avoid his creditors. In his last years he lived on a small pension of ₤10 a week allowed by his cousin Arthur Wellesley, 2nd Duke of Wellington. From 1842 he was styled Viscount Wellesley, and succeeded his father as Earl of Mornington in 1845.

He died in lodgings in Thayer Street, Manchester Square, London, on 1 July 1857, from heart disease. The obituary notice three days later in the Morning Chronicle claimed that he was:

“A spendthrift, a profligate, and a gambler in his youth, he became debauched in his manhood… redeemed by no single virtue, adorned by no single grace, his life gone out even without a flicker of repentance”.

His coffin is in Catacomb B, Kensal Green Cemetery, London.

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Regency Personalities Series-Field Marshal Lord FitzRoy James Henry Somerset 1st Baron Raglan

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.

Field Marshal Lord FitzRoy James Henry Somerset 1st Baron Raglan
30 September 1788 – 29 June 1855

FitzRoy Somerset

Field Marshal Lord FitzRoy James Henry Somerset 1st Baron Raglan was a British Army officer. As a junior officer he served in the Peninsular War and the Hundred Days, latterly as military secretary to the Duke of Wellington. He also took part in politics as Tory Member of Parliament for Truro before becoming Master-General of the Ordnance. He became commander of the British troops sent to the Crimea in 1854: while his primary objective was to defend Constantinople he was ordered to besiege the Russian Port of Sevastopol. After an early success at the Battle of Alma, a failure to deliver orders with sufficient clarity caused the fateful Charge of the Light Brigade at the Battle of Balaclava. Despite further success at the Battle of Inkerman, a piecemeal allied assault on Sevastopol in June 1855 was a complete failure. Somerset died later that month from a mixture of dysentery and clinical depression.

Born the eighth and youngest son of Henry Somerset, 5th Duke of Beaufort by Elizabeth Somerset (daughter of Admiral the Hon. Edward Boscawen), Somerset was educated at Westminster School and was commissioned as a cornet in the 4th Light Dragoons on 16 June 1804.

Promoted to lieutenant on 1 June 1805, Somerset accompanied Sir Arthur Paget on his visit to Sultan Selim III of the Ottoman Empire, who had been aligning himself too closely with France, in 1807. He became a captain in the 43rd Regiment of Foot on 5 May 1808 shortly before his appointment as aide-de-camp to Sir Arthur Wellesley in July 1808. Somerset accompanied Wellesley’s Army when it was sent to Portugal later that month. Somerset fought at the Second Battle of Porto in May 1809, the Battle of Talavera in July 1809 and the Battle of Bussaco (where he was wounded) in September 1810. He was appointed acting military secretary to Wellington in November 1810 and fought with him at the Battle of Pombal in March 1811, the Battle of Sabugal in April 1811 and the Battle of Fuentes de Oñoro in May 1811. Promoted to brevet major on 9 June 1811, he also took part in the Battle of El Bodón in September 1811. He specially distinguished himself at the storming of Badajoz in March 1812 by being the first to mount the breach and by helping to secure the surrender of the French Governor and was duly promoted to lieutenant colonel on 27 April 1812.

Somerset went on to fight with Wellington at the Battle of Salamanca in July 1812, the Siege of Burgos in September 1812 and the Battle of Vitoria in June 1813 as well as the Siege of San Sebastián in July 1813, the Battle of the Pyrenees in July 1813 and the Battle of Nivelle in November 1813. They also fought together at the Battle of the Nive in December 1813, the Battle of Orthez in February 1814 and the Battle of Toulouse in April 1814. Following Wellington’s appointment as British Ambassador during the short period of Bourbon rule, Somerset assumed a role as his secretary at the Embassy on 5 July 1814. Somerset transferred to the 1st Guards on 25 July 1814 and was appointed a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath on 2 January 1815.

Somerset also saw action during the Hundred Days: he served on Wellington’s staff at the Battle of Quatre Bras in June 1815 and at the Battle of Waterloo in later that month (where he had to have his right arm amputated and then demanded his arm back so he could retrieve the ring that his wife had given him). Promoted to colonel and appointed an aide-de-camp to the Prince Regent on 28 August 1815, he was appointed a Knight of the Bavarian Military Order of Max Joseph on 3 October 1815. He remained with the Army of Occupation in France until May 1816 when he returned to the post of secretary at the British Embassy in Paris.

Somerset was elected Tory Member of Parliament for Truro in 1818 and became Wellington’s secretary in the latter’s new capacity as Master-General of the Ordnance in 1819. Somerset lost his seat at the general election in 1820 but, having been promoted to major-general on 27 May 1825, regained his seat in Parliament in 1826. Following Wellington’s appointment as Commander-in-Chief of the Forces in January 1827 Somerset became Military Secretary in August 1827. He stood down from Parliament in 1829 and was promoted to lieutenant-general on 28 June 1838. Advanced to Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath on 24 September 1852, he became Master-General of the Ordnance on 30 September 1852 and was raised to the peerage as Baron Raglan of Raglan in the County of Monmouthshire on 11 October 1852.

Somerset became commander of the British troops sent to the Crimea with the temporary rank of full general on 21 February 1854 and was promoted to the substantive rank of full general on 20 June 1854. While Somerset’s primary objective was to defend Constantinople he was ordered by the Duke of Newcastle, who was at the time Secretary of State for War, to besiege the Russian Port of Sevastopol “unless it could not be undertaken with a reasonable prospect of success”. An Anglo-French force under the joint command of Somerset and General Jacques St. Arnaud defeated General Alexander Menshikov’s Russian army at the Battle of Alma in September 1854.

At the Battle of Balaclava in October 1854, Somerset issued an order to the Earl of Lucan, his cavalry commander, who in turn ordered the Earl of Cardigan, a subordinate commander who happened to be Lucan’s brother-in-law and who detested him, to lead the fateful Charge of the Light Brigade leading to some 278 British casualties. Despite an indecisive result at Balaclava the British and French allied army gained a victory at the Battle of Inkerman in November 1854 and Somerset was promoted to the rank of field marshal on 5 November 1854. He was also awarded the Ottoman Empire Order of the Medjidie, 1st Class on 15 May 1855.

Somerset was blamed by the press and the government for the sufferings of the British soldiers in the terrible Crimean winter during the Siege of Sevastopol owing to shortages of food and clothing although this, in part, was the fault of the home authorities who failed to provide adequate logistical support. A piecemeal allied assault on Sevastopol on 18 June 1855 was a complete failure. The anxieties of the siege began to seriously undermine Somerset’s health and he died from a mixture of dysentery and clinical depression on 29 June 1855. His body was brought home and interred at St Michael and All Angels Church, Badminton.

Emily Harriet Wellesley-Pole, Lady FitzRoy Somerset

Somerset had also served as honorary colonel of the 53rd Regiment of Foot and then as honorary colonel of the Royal Regiment of Horse Guards (The Blues). Cefntilla Court, Llandenny was built as a lasting memorial to Somerset in 1858: an inscription over the porch there reads:

“This house with 238 acres of land was purchased by 1623 of the friends, admirers and comrades in arms of the late Field Marshal Lord Raglan GCB and presented by them to his son and his heirs for ever in a lasting memorial of affectionate regard and respect.”

A blue plaque was erected outside Somerset’s house at Stanhope Gate in London in 1911.

On 6 August 1814 Somerset married Lady Emily Harriet Wellesley-Pole (daughter of the William Wellesley-Pole, 3rd Earl of Mornington which makes Somerset the nephew by marriage of the Duke of Wellington). They had two sons:

• Arthur William FitzRoy Somerset (6 May 1816 – 21 December 1845)
• Richard Henry Fitzroy Somerset, 2nd Baron Raglan (24 May 1817 – May 1884)

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Regency Personalities Series-Henry Wellesley

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.

Henry Wellesley
20 January 1773 – 27 April 1847

Henry Wellesley

Wellesley was the fifth and youngest son of Garret Wellesley, 1st Earl of Mornington, by the Honourable Anne Hill-Trevor, eldest daughter of Arthur Hill-Trevor, 1st Viscount Dungannon. He was the younger brother of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, Richard Wellesley, 1st Marquess Wellesley and William Wellesley-Pole, 3rd Earl of Mornington. He was educated at Eton and at the court of the Duke of Brunswick. He purchased an Ensigncy in the 40th Foot in 1790.

Wellesley’s diplomatic career began in 1791 when he was appointed attaché to the British embassy at The Hague. The next year, he became Secretary of Legation in Stockholm. In 1791 he exchanged into the 1st Foot Guards and in 1793 he purchased a Lieutenantcy. In 1794, while on a trip home from Lisbon with his sister Anne, he was captured by the French, and remained in prison during the height of the terror, escaping only in 1795. In the latter year he sat for Trim in the Irish House of Commons.

At the 1807 general election he was elected to the House of Commons of the United Kingdom as a Member of Parliament (MP) both for Athlone in Ireland and for Eye in England. He chose to sit for Eye, and held the seat until his resignation in 1809 by taking the Chiltern Hundreds.

In 1797 Wellesley accompanied Lord Malmesbury as secretary on his unsuccessful mission to negotiate peace with the French at Lille. Later that year, he travelled to India, where he became private secretary to his oldest brother, Lord Mornington, the new governor-general. He was in India between 1797 and 1799, and again from 1801 to 1802, and was a useful assistant to his brother in a variety of diplomatic capacities, negotiating treaties with Mysore and Oudh.

In 1802 he returned to Europe, and married the next year to Lady Charlotte Cadogan, by whom he had three sons and a daughter before she abandoned him in 1809, running off with Lord Paget, a talented cavalry officer. His wife divorced him in Scotland in 1810.

In 1809 Wellesley became the British envoy to Spain – his eldest brother, by now Marquess Wellesley, was now Foreign Secretary, while his brother Arthur (now Viscount Wellington) was British commander-in-chief in Spain. Together, the three brothers helped to make the Peninsular campaign a success, and in 1812 Wellesley was knighted. He remained Ambassador to Spain until 1821, but found time to marry again, this time to Lady Georgiana Cecil, daughter of the Marquess of Salisbury. In 1823, Wellesley became Ambassador to Austria, where he remained until 1831. Although he was close acquaintances with Foreign Secretary George Canning, who had asked Wellesley to serve as his second in his duel with Lord Castlereagh, Wellesley felt that Canning did not appreciate his services, feeling him to be too conciliatory.

In 1828 Wellesley was created Baron Cowley, of Wellesley in the County of Somerset, due to his brother Wellington’s influence with the prime minister, Lord Goderich. His final diplomatic service was in Paris, where he served as ambassador during Robert Peel’s administrations in 1835 and 1841-1846. In 1846 Cowley retired, but remained in Paris, where he died the next year.

Cowley’s eldest son, Henry Richard Charles Wellesley, followed in his father’s footsteps as a diplomatist, holding the Paris embassy for fifteen years, and was eventually created Earl Cowley. Another son, Gerald Valerian Wellesley, became Dean of Windsor.

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Regency Personalities Series-John Fane 11th Earl of Westmorland

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.

John Fane 11th Earl of Westmorland
2 February 1784 – 16 October 1859

John Fane

Styled Lord Burghersh from birth, he was born at Sackville Street, Piccadilly, London, the son of John Fane, 10th Earl of Westmorland, by his wife Sarah Child, daughter and heiress of the wealthy banker Sir Robert Child, builder of Osterley Park. His sister was the well known social hostess Sarah Villiers, Countess of Jersey. He succeeded his father in the earldom in 1841.

Lord Burghersh was commissioned Ensign in the 11th Foot without purchase in 1803. In 1804 he transferred to the 7th Foot as a Lieutenant and in 1806 he transferred to the 23rd Foot as a Captain. He later transferred to the 2nd West India Regiment. He was promoted Lieutenant-Colonel in the Army in 1809 and then transferred to the 91st Foot. In 1811 he exchanged back into the 7th Foot and later the same year purchased the Lieutenant-Colonelcy of the 63rd Foot. In 1814 he was promoted Colonel in the Army. He was an extra aide-de-camp to the Duke of Wellington (his wife’s uncle) and fought at Talavera and Busaco during the Peninsular War. He was promoted Major-General in 1838 and General in 1854 and was appointed a Colonel of the 56th Foot in 1842.

Lord Westmorland sat as Member of Parliament for Lyme Regis between 1806 and 1816. He served as Minister to Tuscany between 1814 and 1830, as Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to Prussia between 1841 and 1851 and as Ambassador to the Austrian Empire between 1851 and 1855. He was appointed a Companion of the Order of the Bath in 1815, a Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Guelphic Order (KCH) in 1817, a Knight Commander of the Order of the Bath (KCB) in 1838 and a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath (GCB) in 1846 and was sworn of the Privy Council in 1822.

Lord Westmorland was also a composer and a founder of the Royal Academy of Music. He was a great music lover who devoted most of his leisure hours to the study of music, was a good violinist and a prolific composer. This fact helped to improve the standing of the musical profession in England. Like many aristocrats, however, he regarded Italy as the only source of good music.

Priscilla Fane

Lord Westmorland married Priscilla Pole-Wellesley, daughter of the Honourable William Wellesley-Pole, later first Baron Maryborough and third Earl of Mornington, in 1811. He died in October 1859, aged 75, and was succeeded in the earldom by his fourth but eldest surviving son, Francis. Lord Westmorland’s fifth and youngest son Julian Fane was a poet and diplomat. The Countess of Westmorland died in February 1879.

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Regency Personalities Series-William Wellesley Pole 3rd Earl of Mornington

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 Wellesley Pole 3rd Earl of Mornington
May 20-1763-February 22 1845

Another less famous brother. William was the older brother of Arthur, who would become the Duke of Wellington. Born a Dangan Castle he was the second the son of the 1st Earl, Garret Wesley, and his older brother Richard was the 1st Marquess Wellesley. Another younger brother was the 1st Baron Cowley. He was educated at Eton and entered the Royal Navy where he served aboard the HMS Lion and fought at the Battle of Grenada.

The young William Wesley aged 14, painted in 1777 by Benjamin West

The 1st Earl had debts and the family became cost conscious. Then in 1781 William Pole, William’s godfather and the husband of his great-aunt Ann Colley died and bequeathed his estates on Wesley. But they had to adopt the name Pole. William changed his name to Wesley-Pole.

William Pole (d. 1781) who at his death bequeathed his estate to William Wesley

William was a Tory and became a member of the Irish Parliament for Trim between 1783 to 1790 and then of the British House of Commons for East Looe from 1790 to 1795 and Queen’s County from 1801 to 1821. He served as Secretary of the Admiralty under the Duke of Portland from 1807 to 1809 and as Chief Secretary for Ireland under Spencer Perceval from 1809 to 1812. He was also Lord of the Irish Treasury and Chancellor of he Irish Exchequer. He was part of the British Privy Council and Irish Privy Council and served as Master of the Mint under Lord Liverpool. (DWW-All this while Wellington was not in politics so much, but in the Army. And Richard was also a member of the government. Either this was a talented or well connected family.)

In 1821 he was elevated to the Peerage of the United Kingdom as Baron Maryborough. He was also Master of the Buckhounds and Postmaster-General. Then in 1842 when Richard died he became 3rd Earl of Mornington.

In 1784 he married Katherine Elizabeth Forbes, daughter of Admiral Forbes and the granddaughter of the 3rd Earl of Granard and 3rd Earl of Essex. THey had one son and 3 daughters. The son became the 4th Earl, one daughter married Sir Charles Bagot who became Governor General of British North America, one daughter married the man who became the 1st Baron Raglan, and one married the man who became the 11th Earl of Westmorland.

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