Charles Francis Greville, British Antiquarian, Collector and Politican

Posted on June 25, 2013 by Regina Jeffers

Greville_1749_1809 Charles Francis Greville PC, FRS (12 May 1749 – 23 April 1809), was a British antiquarian, collector and politician.

Background
Greville was the second son of Francis Greville, 1st Earl of Warwick, by Elizabeth Hamilton, daughter of Lord Archibald Hamilton. George Greville, 2nd Earl of Warwick, and Robert Fulke Greville, were his brothers.

Art Collections
Greville lived on a stringent income of ₤500 a year, but managed to acquire antiquities from Gavin Hamilton in Rome. He also purchased through his uncle a genre piece by Annibale Carracci. As a Fellow of the Royal Society, his special interest was in minerals and precious stones, which were catalogued by the émigré Jacques Louis, Comte de Bournon, and were later purchased via Act of Parliament for the British Museum. He was good friends with James Smithson, whom he sponsored for membership in the Royal Society and with whom he exchanged minerals.

Greville remained for years a very close friend of Sir Joseph Banks and, like him, a member of the Society of Dilettanti. He accompanied Banks at the organizing meeting in March 1804 of the precursor to the Royal Horticultural Society, the Society for the Improvement of Horticulture.

The nephew of Sir William Hamilton, the British envoy at Naples who formed two collections of Greek vases, one of which is at the British Museum, Greville briefly (1782–86) had for a mistress Emma Hart, whom he educated and took to George Romney’s studio where he was sitting for his own portrait; Romney became fascinated with the beautiful Emma, who later became Sir William’s Lady Hamilton and eventually Lord Nelson’s lover.

Political Career
When his father died in 1773 and his brother became Earl of Warwick, Greville inherited his seat of Warwick in the House of Commons. He held the seat until 1790. He served as a Lord of the Treasury from 1780 to 1782, as Treasurer of the Household from 1783 to 1784 and as Vice-Chamberlain of the Household from 1794 to 1804 and was sworn of the Privy Council in 1783.

Milford Haven
The construction of the seaport of Milford Haven, Pembrokeshire, South Wales, is due to Greville’s entrepreneurial spirit. When it was the property of Sir William Hamilton, Greville applied for an Act of Parliament to enable Hamilton and his heirs to make docks, construct quays, establish markets, with roads and avenues to the port, to regulate the police, and make the place a station for conveying the mails. The first structure was a coaching inn. Natives of Nantucket were induced to settle, and for some decades Milford was a whaling port. A royal dockyard was established during the Napoleonic Wars. At his death in 1803, Hamilton bequeathed it to his nephew.

Personal Life
Greville never married. He lived for years in a house facing Paddington Green, then a suburban district of London, where he indulged his passion for gardening in a large garden provided with glasshouses in which he grew many rare tropical plants, aided by his connection with Banks, and where he managed to coax Vanilla planifolia to flower for the first time under glass, in the winter of 1806-07. His contributions to the herbarium assembled by Sir James Edward Smith are preserved by the Linnaean Society of London. The Australasian genus Grevillea is named in his honour. In the latter part of his life he lived at Warwick Castle.

Greville died in April 1809, aged 60. Greville Island, in the South Island of New Zealand, was named to honour his memory by Ensign Barallier, in 1820. Greville plays a role in Susan Sontag’s 1992 novel The Volcano Lover, about Sir William Hamilton.

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The Magnificent Osterley Park, Backdrop for TV, Film, and Literature

Posted on June 24, 2013 by Regina Jeffers

800px-Osterley_Park_House,_London-25June2009-rc Osterley Park is a mansion set in a large park of the same name. It is in the London Borough of Hounslow, part of the western suburbs of London. When the house was built it was surrounded by rural countryside. It was one of a group of large houses close to London, which served as country retreats for wealthy families, but were not true country houses on large agricultural estates. Other surviving country retreats of this type near London include Syon House and Chiswick House. The park is one of the largest open spaces in west London, though it is marred by the presence of the M4 motorway, which cuts across the middle of it.

Elizabethan
The original building on this site was a manor house built in the 1570s for banker Sir Thomas Gresham, who purchased the manor of Osterley in 1562. The “faire and stately brick house” was complete in 1576. It is known that Queen Elizabeth visited. The stable block from this period remains at Osterley Park. Gresham was so wealthy he also bought the neighbouring Manor of Boston in 1572. His widowed stepdaughter-in-law built the present Jacobean manor house there, which still stands to this day.

Child and Adam
Two hundred years later, the manor house was falling into disrepair, when, as the result of a mortgage default, it came into the ownership of Sir Francis Child, the head of Child’s Bank. In 1761 he employed Robert Adam, who was just emerging as one of the most fashionable architects in England, to remodel the house. When Sir Francis died in 1763, the project was taken up by his brother and heir Robert Child, for whom the interiors were created.

The house is of red brick with white stone details and is approximately square, with turrets in the four corners. Adam’s design, which incorporates some of the earlier structure, is highly unusual, and differs greatly in style from the original construction. One side is left almost open and is spanned by an Ionic pedimented screen which is approached by a broad flight of steps and leads to a central courtyard, which is at piano nobile level.

Adam’s neoclassical interiors are among his most notable sequences of rooms. Horace Walpole sarcastically described the drawing room as “worthy of Eve before the fall.” The rooms are characterised by elaborate, but restrained plasterwork, rich, highly varied colour schemes, and a degree of coordination between decor and furnishings unusual in English neoclassical interiors. Notable rooms include the entrance hall, which has large semi-circular alcoves at each end, and the Etruscan dressing room, which Adam said was inspired by the Etruscan vases in Sir William Hamilton’s collection, illustrations of which had recently been published. Adam also designed some of the furniture, including the opulent domed state bed, still in the house.

After Child
Robert Child’s only daughter, Sarah Anne Child, married John Fane, 10th Earl of Westmorland in 1782. When Child died two months later, his will placed his vast holdings, including Osterley, in trust for his eldest granddaughter, Lady Sarah Sophia Fane, who was born in 1785. She married George Child-Villiers, 5th Earl of Jersey, and thus Osterley passed into the Jersey family.

Home Guard Training Establishment
The grounds of Osterley Park were used for the training of the first members of the Local Defence Volunteers (forerunners of the Home Guard) when the 9th Earl, a friend of publisher Lord Hulton, allowed writer and military journalist Captain Tom Wintringham to establish the first Home Guard training school (which Hulton sponsored) at the park in May/June 1940, teaching the theory and practice of modern mechanical warfare, guerilla warfare techniques, and using the estate workers’ homes, then scheduled for demolition, to teach street fighting techniques.

The painter Roland Penrose taught camouflage techniques here, attempting to disguise the obvious charms of a naked Lee Miller. Maj. Wilfred Vernon taught the art of mixing home made explosives, and his explosives store can still be seen at the rear of the house, while Canadian Bert “Yank” Levy, who had served under Wintringham in the Spanish Civil War, taught knife fighting and hand-to-hand combat. Despite winning world fame in newsreels and newspaper articles around the world (particularly in the US), the school was disapproved of by the War Office and Winston Churchill, and was taken over in September 1940 and closed in 1941, the staff and courses reallocated to other newly opened WO approved Home Guard schools.

Postwar History
In 1947, a Ministry of Works team, including architect E.T. Spashett, converted the building for use as a convalescence home for injured airmen. George Child-Villiers, 9th Earl of Jersey gave the house and much of the estate to the National Trust in 1949. It is now open to the public, and contains most of the original furniture in excellent condition.

In Popular Culture
Television
***Osterley Park was originally proposed as the setting (and location) for the 1973 Doctor Who serial Day of the Daleks. The name was changed to “Auderley” in the finished programme, and was renamed “Austerley” in the novel of the serial. The location eventually used was Dropmore Park in Buckinghamshire.
***The entrance hall of the house also appeared as a room in an upmarket central London hotel in the denouement of the 2007 ITV adaptation of At Bertram’s Hotel.
***Osterley Park was used as the home of billionaire Sir Peter Maxwell, for the 2006 TV pilot, ‘Maxwell: Inside the Empire.’
***Chucklevision was also filmed in Osterley Park.
***The house featured in an episode of 1970s cult series The Persuaders, which starred Roger Moore and Tony Curtis.
***Many of the Horrible Histories (2009 TV series) episodes were filmed in Osterley House and Gardens.

Film
***The 1960 film The Grass Is Greener, starring Cary Grant, Deborah Kerr, and Robert Mitchum, was set and partly shot at Osterley Park House.
***The 2001 film Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham…, starring Shah Rukh Khan and Kajol, the garden reunion scene.
***Osterley Park has been used for Buckingham Palace scenes, including Victoria’s sitting room and anteroom, in the 2009 film The Young Victoria starring Emily Blunt and Rupert Friend.
***The 1984 film Top Secret!, starring Val Kilmer and Omar Sharif, features Osterley as East Berlin Town Hall, when the various cultural ambassadors are presented with medals by the East German Women’s Olympic Team.
***In the 2012 Batman film The Dark Knight Rises, the interior of Osterley Park mansion is used as a double for Wayne Manor.

Literature
***Osterley Park features in John Banville’s novel The Untouchable.

Posted in British history, Georgian Era, Jane Austen, legends and myths, Living in the Regency, real life tales, Regency era, Scotland, Uncategorized, Victorian era | Tagged , | Comments Off on The Magnificent Osterley Park, Backdrop for TV, Film, and Literature

Worship Society of Apothecaries

Posted on June 21, 2013 by Regina Jeffers

Apothecaries' Hall Black Friars Lane, London

Apothecaries’ Hall
Black Friars Lane, London

The Worshipful Society of Apothecaries of London is one of the livery companies of the City of London. It is one of the largest livery companies (with over 1,600 members in 2012) and ranks 58th in their order of precedence.

The society is a member of the London Museums of Health & Medicine and its guild church is the Church of St Andrew-by-the-Wardrobe. The society’s modern roles include educational, social, ceremonial and charitable activities, in addition to supporting the City of London, its governance and the Lord Mayor of the City of London.

Prior to the foundation of the society in 1617, London apothecaries were in the Grocers’ Company (founded 1345), and before that they were members of the Guild of Pepperers (founded before 1180).

Having sought autonomy for many years, the apothecaries finally separated from the Grocers’ Company in 1617 when they were granted a Royal Charter by James I. During the remainder of the 17th Century its members (including Nicholas Culpeper) challenged the College of Physicians members’ monopoly of practising medicine. In 1704, the House of Lords overturned a ruling of the Queen’s Bench in the “Rose Case,” which effectively gave apothecaries the right to practice medicine, meaning that apothecaries may be viewed as forerunners of present-day general (medical) practitioners or family physicians.

The Apothecaries Act 1815 granted the society the power to licence and regulate medical practitioners throughout England and Wales. The society retained this role as a member of the United Examining Board until 1999; the society was capable of licensing doctors until 2008, but did not do so since the dissolution of the United Examining Board.

Notable people who qualified in medicine as a Licentiate of the Society (LSA) include John Keats (1816), Elizabeth Garrett Anderson (1865, thereby becoming the first openly female recipient of a UK medical qualification) and Ronald Ross (1881).

Motto and arms
Described in the society’s Grant of Arms of 1617 as “the inventor of physic” [i.e. medicine], Apollo is depicted in the coat of arms overcoming pestilence which is represented heraldically by a wyvern.

The society motto is Opiferque Per Orbem Dicor, a Latin part-quotation from Ovid referring to the Greek deity Apollo, meaning: “and throughout the world I am called the bringer of help.” The full quotation, from the first book of Metamorphoses (Daphne and Apollo), puts the motto in context and makes it particularly relevant to apothecaries:
Inventum medicina meum est, opiferque per orbem dicor, et herbarum subiecta potentia nobis. Hei mihi, quod nullis amor est medicabilis herbis; nec prosunt domino, quae prosunt omnibus, artes!
(Medicine is my invention, throughout the world I am called the bringer of help, and the power of herbs is under my control [but] alas for me, love cannot be cured by herbs, and the skills which help everyone else do not benefit their master.)

The society’s crest is a rhinoceros, and the supporters are golden unicorns.

Unusually, the illustration in the original grant of arms accords the Society the helmet of a Peer (noble), and the text specifies the red/white mantling usually associated with a Peer. The use of the term ‘Society’ rather than the usual ‘Company’ is traditional, though – the grant itself uses both terms, as do grants to other City companies.

Shield and Crest of the Apothecaries over the south gate of the Chelsea Physic Garden

Shield and Crest of the Apothecaries
over the south gate of the Chelsea Physic Garden

Chelsea Physic Garden
The Society of Apothecaries is perhaps best known generally for its foundation in 1673 of the Chelsea Physic Garden, London, one of Europe’s oldest botanical gardens and the second oldest in Britain. After Sir Hans Sloane granted the society rights to the manor of Chelsea, the four-acre (16,000 m²) garden became the richest collection of medicinal plants in Europe under the direction of Philip Miller. Its seed exchange programme, originally initiated with the Leiden Botanical Garden, led to cotton being planted for the first time in the Colony of Georgia.

Jealously guarded during the Society’s tenure, in 1983 the garden became a charity and opened to the public for the first time.

Education – History and Qualifications
In addition to providing qualifications in, and regulation of, the trade of the apothecary and dispensing, the Apothecaries’ Society offered primary medical qualifications until 1999. This began with the 1815 Medical Act, followed by further Acts of Parliament. The title of the original licence was Licentiate of the Society of Apothecaries (LSA). When the General Medical Council was established by statute in 1858, the LSA became a registrable qualification. From 1885, the examination included surgery, obstetrics and gynaecology, which were required by law following the Medical Act of 1886, and in 1907 the title was altered by parliamentary act to LMSSA to reflect this. The society ceased to be recognised by the General Medical Council as a provider of primary medical qualifications in 2008, although it had not issued any licences as a member of the United Examining Board since 1999.

Since 1928, when the Society instituted the first postgraduate qualification in Midwifery (the Mastery of Midwifery, MMSA), the Apothecaries have pioneered 15 further such diplomas in specialist subjects not offered by the Universities, Medical Royal Colleges or any other medical body.

The Apothecaries currently award postgraduate diplomas in the following fields (with their year of establishment):
Medical jurisprudence (1962)
History of medicine (1970)
GenitoUrinary medicine (1973)
Philosophy of medicine (1978)
Medical care of catastrophes (1994)
Forensic medical sciences (1998)
HIV medicine (2002)
Forensic and clinical aspects of sexual assault (2009)

In addition to this professional qualifications role, the present-day society also sponsors lecturers at UK Medical Schools, and organises courses and public lectures through two faculties: the ‘Faculty of the History and Philosophy of Medicine and Pharmacy’ and the ‘Faculty of Conflict and Catastrophe Medicine.’

Apothecaries’ Hall

Apothecaries' Hall courtyard in 1831

Apothecaries’ Hall courtyard in 1831

The society is based at Apothecaries’ Hall in Blackfriars. The building, originally part of the Dominican priory of Black Friars, was called Cobham House prior to its purchase by the society in 1632.

The original building was destroyed in the Great Fire of London in 1666. A new hall was built on the same site and completed in 1672 to the design of Edward Jerman; an “Elaboratory” was included at this time for the first ever large-scale manufacture of drugs. From then until 1922, the Society manufactured medicinal and pharmaceutical products at their Hall, and sold some of their products from a retail outlet opening onto Water Lane (now Blackfriars Lane). Much of the manufactured drugs were to supply clients of the Society which included the Navy, the Army, the East India Company and the Crown Colonies.

A major restoration and (external) building programme was carried out in the 1780s. Although the hall underwent further redevelopment in the 1980s, its appearance has altered little since the late-eighteenth century.

Apothecaries’ Hall is the oldest extant livery hall in the City of London, with the first-floor structure and arrangement of the Great Hall, Court Room and Parlour remaining as rebuilt between 1668 and 1670.

Members and Structure
At least 85% of the membership of the society are required to be medical practitioners. In fact, the membership is predominantly made up of prominent physicians (rather than surgeons who, for historical reasons, are more likely to be members of the Barbers’ Company).

The members of the society are (in descending rank):
The Master
Two Wardens (The “Senior Warden” and “Junior Warden”)
21 Assistants (and a small number of Assistants emeriti)
Liverymen (Full members of the society, all of whom are Freemen of the City of London. Liverymen of the society are in two classes, “guardant” and “couchant”)
Freemen of the society (most of whom are “Yeomen”)
Apprentices (not technically members of the society)

The Master, Wardens and Assistants together constitute the “Court,” which is the governing body of the society.

Members of the Court wear dark-blue gowns with gold facings. The Master and Wardens have chains of office and particular traditional robes – the Master’s trimmed with musquash, the wardens’ trimmed with fitch. Liverymen are “clothed” upon attaining that rank (modernly with a solicitor’s-type black robe and a blue/cream epitoge).

The society’s only truly academic dress were:
for the Master of Midwifery qualification (MMSA – ceased in 1963), a light-blue lambskin-faced robe with an blue/white epitoge
a dark-blue gown with blue/gold facings for the Licentiate (LMSSA)

The chief operating officer of the society is its Clerk and the hall is managed by the Beadle.
The Clerk wears a black solicitor’s gown trimmed with blue ribbons, and the Beadle’s robe is decorated with miniature hanging rosettes.

Other roles in the society include the Dean (a senior member who oversees the educational functions) and the Registrar (who directs the examinations’ department).

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Guildhall, London’s Ceremonial and Administrative Center

Posted on June 20, 2013 by Regina Jeffers

Guildhall

Guildhall

Guildhall is a building in the City of London, off Gresham and Basinghall streets, in the wards of Bassishaw and Cheap. It has been used as a town hall for several hundred years, and is still the ceremonial and administrative centre of the City of London and its Corporation. The term Guildhall refers both to the whole building and to its main room, which is a medieval-style great hall. Guildhall complex houses the offices of the City of London Corporation and various public facilities. The building is traditionally referred to as Guildhall never “the” Guildhall.

Guildhall should not be confused with London City Hall, which is the administrative centre for Greater London, of which the City of London is only a geographically small part.
The nearest London Underground stations are Bank, St Paul’s and Moorgate.

Roman, Saxon and Medieval
The great hall is believed to be on a site of an earlier Guildhall (one possible derivation for the word ‘guildhall’ is the Anglo-Saxon ‘gild’, meaning payment, with a “gild-hall” being where citizens would pay their taxes). During the Roman period, it was the site of an amphitheatre, the largest in Britannia, partial remains of which are on public display in the basement of Guildhall Art Gallery and the outline of whose arena is marked with a black circle on the paving of the courtyard in front of the hall. Indeed, the siting of the Saxon Guildhall here was probably due to the amphitheatre’s remains. Excavations by MOLAS in 2000 at the entrance to Guildhall Yard exposed remains of the great 13th-century gatehouse built directly over the southern entrance to the Roman amphitheatre, which raises the possibility that enough of the Roman structure survived to influence the siting not only of the gatehouse and Guildhall itself but also of the church of St Lawrence Jewry whose strange alignment may shadow the elliptical form of the amphitheatre beneath. The first documentary reference to a London Guildhall is dated 1128 and the current hall’s west crypt may be part of a late-13th century building. Legendary British history made Guildhall’s site the site of the palace of Brutus of Troy.

1441–present
The current building was begun in c. 1411, and it is the only stone building not belonging to the Church to have survived the Great Fire of London in 1666. The complex contains several other historic interiors besides the hall, including the large medieval crypts, the old library, and the print room, all of which are now used as function rooms.

Trials in this hall have included those of Anne Askew (Protestant martyr), Henry Howard, Earl of Surrey, Sir Nicholas Throckmorton, Lady Jane Grey, Guildford Dudley, Thomas Cranmer, Henry Peckham, John Daniel, John Felton (Catholic), Roderigo Lopez, Henry Garnet (in connection with the Gunpowder Plot), Sir Gervase Helwys (in connection with the Overbury plot) and it contains memorials to Pitt the Elder, Pitt the Younger, Admiral Lord Nelson, the Duke of Wellington, William Beckford, and Winston Churchill. It also played a part in Jack Cade’s 1450 rebellion. On 16 November 1848 the pianist Frédéric Chopin made his last public appearance on a concert platform here.

The Great Hall did not completely escape damage in 1666; it was partially restored – with a flat roof – in 1670. The present grand entrance (the east wing of the south front), in “Hindoostani Gothic,” was added in 1788 by George Dance (and restored in 1910). A more extensive restoration than that in 1670 was completed in 1866 by City of London architect Sir Horace Jones, who added a new timber roof in close keeping with the original. This replacement was destroyed during The Second Great Fire of London on the night of 29/30 December 1940, the result of a Luftwaffe fire-raid. It was replaced in 1954 during works designed by Sir Giles Gilbert Scott.

Present
The day-to-day administration of the City of London Corporation is now conducted from modern buildings immediately to the north of Guildhall, but Guildhall itself and the adjacent historic interiors are still used for official functions, and it is open to the public during the annual London Open House weekend. Guildhall Art Gallery was added to the complex in the 1990s. The Clockmakers’ Museum and Guildhall Library, a public reference library with specialist collections on London, which include material from the 11th century onwards, are also housed in the complex.
The marathon route of the 2012 Summer Olympics passed through Guildhall Yard.

Gog and Magog
Two giants, Gog and Magog, are associated with Guildhall. Legend has it that the two giants were defeated by Brutus and chained to the gates of his palace on the site of Guildhall. Carvings of Gog and Magog are kept in Guildhall and 7 foot high wicker effigies of them donated by the Worshipful Company of Basketmakers in 2007 lead the procession in the annual Lord Mayor’s Show.

An early version of Gog and Magog were destroyed in Guildhall during the Great Fire of London. They were replaced in 1708 by a large pair of wooden statues carved by Captain Richard Saunders. These giants, on whom the current versions are based, lasted for over two hundred years before they were destroyed in the Blitz. They, in turn, were replaced by a new pair carved by David Evans in 1953 and given to the City of London by Alderman Sir George Wilkinson, who had been Lord Mayor in 1940 at the time of the destruction of the previous versions.

Functions
Guildhall hosts many events throughout the year, the most notable one being the Lord Mayor’s Banquet, which is held in honour of the immediate-past Lord Mayor and is the first to be hosted by the new Lord Mayor of the City of London. In keeping with tradition, it is at this Banquet that the Prime Minister makes a major World Affairs speech. One of the last acts of the outgoing Lord Mayor is to present prizes at the City of London School prize day at the Guildhall. Other events include those of various law firms, award evenings for the Wine and Spirit Education Trust (WSET), and the famous banquet for the International Wine and Spirit Competition (IWSC). The Worshipful Company of Carmen holds its Cart-Marking ceremony in the courtyard each July.

The Guildhall complex in c.1805. The buildings on the right and left have not survived.

The Guildhall complex in c.1805. The buildings on the right and left have not survived.

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London’s Livery Companies

Posted on June 19, 2013 by Regina Jeffers

Grocers' Hall, Prince's Street Grocers' Hall is the home of the Worshipful Company of Grocers, which ranks second of the City Livery Companies and was originally known as The Guild of Pepperers. Their earliest records date from the year 1180. Grocer's Hall is hidden in a court off Prince's St, and is easy to miss, as larger buildings surround it and entry to this court is through alleys under these buildings. The current building is the 5th Grocers' Hall and was completed in 1970 to replace the previous building which was destroyed by fire on 22nd Sept 1965. See the Grocers Company website http://www.grocershall.co.uk/

Grocers’ Hall, Prince’s Street Grocers’ Hall is the home of the Worshipful Company of Grocers, which ranks second of the City Livery Companies and was originally known as The Guild of Pepperers. Their earliest records date from the year 1180.
Grocer’s Hall is hidden in a court off Prince’s St, and is easy to miss, as larger buildings surround it and entry to this court is through alleys under these buildings. The current building is the 5th Grocers’ Hall and was completed in 1970 to replace the previous building which was destroyed by fire on 22nd Sept 1965.
See the Grocers Company website http://www.grocershall.co.uk/

The Livery Companies of the City of London are various historic trade associations almost all of which are known as the “Worshipful Company of…” their relevant trade, craft or profession. The medieval Companies originally developed as guilds and were responsible for the regulation of their trades, controlling, for instance, wages and labour conditions. Until the Protestant Reformation, they were closely associated with religious activities, notably in support of chantry chapels and churches and the observance of ceremonies, notably the mystery plays.

Some of the Livery Companies continue to have a professional role today: for example, the Scriveners’ Company admits senior members to that profession, the Apothecaries’ Company awards post-graduate qualifications in some medical specialties, and the Hackney Carriage Drivers’ Company comprises licensed London taxicab drivers who have learnt the “knowledge of London.” Other Companies have become purely charitable foundations, such as the Longbow Makers’ Company.

The active Companies, which currently number 108, play an important part in social life and networking in the City and have a long and proud history of cultural and education patronage. They retain voting rights for the City of London Corporation, the local authority with extensive local government powers.

After the Worshipful Company of Carmen was accepted in 1746, no new Companies were formed for over 100 years until the Master Mariners in 1926 (granted livery in 1932). Post-1926 Companies are often called modern Livery Companies.

Formed in 1999, the Security Professionals’ Company became the 108th Livery Company on 19 February 2008 when the Court of Aldermen approved their petition for livery. Two bodies, the Worshipful Company of Parish Clerks and the Company of Watermen and Lightermen, are recognised as City companies but without the grant of livery for historical reasons; three further guilds (the Company of Educators; Public Relations Practitioners; and, the Company of Arts Scholars) aim to obtain a grant of livery.

Governance
Livery Companies are governed by a Master (known in some Companies as the Prime Warden or Bailiff), a number of Wardens (who may be known as the Upper, Middle, Lower, or Renter Wardens), and a Court of Assistants, which elects the Master and Wardens. The chief operating officer of the Company is known as the Clerk.

Vinters' Hall is the home of the Worshipful Company of Vintners, 11th in the order of precedence.

Vinters’ Hall is the home of the Worshipful Company of Vintners, 11th in the order of precedence.

Members generally fall into two categories: freemen and liverymen. One may become a freeman, or acquire the “freedom of the company,” upon fulfilling the Company’s criteria: traditionally, one may be admitted by “patrimony,” if either parent was a liveryman of the Company; by “servitude,” if one has served the requisite number of years as an apprentice to the Company; or by “redemption,” by paying a fee. The Company may also vote to admit individuals as honorary freemen. Freemen are generally entitled to advance to becoming liverymen by a vote of the court of the Company. Only liverymen can take part in the election of the Lord Mayor, the Sheriffs, and the other traditional officers of the City.

Livery Halls
Many Companies still operate a livery hall where members and their guests can be entertained and Company business transacted. Among the earliest Companies known to have had halls are the Merchant Taylors and Goldsmiths in the 14th Century, but neither theirs nor any other Companies’ original halls remain: the few that survived the Great Fire of London were destroyed in the Blitz of the Second World War.

Today, 39 out of the 108 livery companies have halls in London, in addition to that of the Watermen and Lightermen, which is not strictly a livery hall but in regular use. Most are commonly available for business and social functions, such as weddings, commercial and society meetings, luncheons and dinners. The oldest hall now extant is that of the Worshipful Society of Apothecaries, dating from 1672. Several companies that do not have their own hall share office premises within a hall of another company on a semi-permanent basis, and examples are the Spectacle Makers’ Company, which uses part of Apothecaries’ Hall, and the Shipwrights, which co-habit with the Ironmongers. Three Livery Companies (the Glaziers and Painters of Glass, Launderers, and Scientific Instrument Makers) share a hall in Southwark, just south of but outside of the City of London, while the Worshipful Company of Gunmakers is based at Proof House, in the London Borough of Tower Hamlets and the Master Mariners’ ‘hall’ is an historical ship, HQS Wellington, moored in the Thames and shared with the Scriveners Company. Companies without their own hall will customarily book use of another hall for their formal livery functions, thus giving their members the opportunity to visit and appreciate a large number of livery halls by rotation. Many Blue Plaques in the City of London indicate where a number of companies used to have halls. However, whilst several livery companies may aspire to eventually owning, or again owning, their own hall it is appreciated that any increase in the overall number of livery halls would inevitably lead to some dilution of use of the existing halls. There is also some attraction in belonging to a company which is peripatetic.

The Worshipful Company of Fishmongers, whose hall is pictured, ranks fourth in the order of precedence of 1515.

The Worshipful Company of Fishmongers, whose hall is pictured, ranks fourth in the order of precedence of 1515.

Precedence
In 1515, the Court of Aldermen of the City of London settled an order of precedence for the 48 Livery Companies then in existence, which was based on the Companies’ economic or political power. The first 12 Companies are known as the Great Twelve City Livery Companies. There are now 108 Companies, with modern Companies ranked by seniority.

The Merchant Taylors and the Skinners have always disputed their precedence, so once a year (at Easter) they exchange sixth and seventh place in the order. This alternation is one of the theories for the origin of the phrase “at sixes and sevens,” as the master of the Merchant Taylors has asserted a number of times, although the first use of the phrase may have been before the Taylors and the Skinners decided to alternate their position. The dispute is due to their both receiving their charters in 1327, but there is no proof as to which was the first.

List of Companies in Order of Precedence
The Worshipful Company of Gunmakers, which is positioned 73rd in the order of precedence, has been based at Proof House for over 300 years.
The Worshipful Company of Mercers (general merchants)
The Worshipful Company of Grocers
The Worshipful Company of Drapers (wool and cloth merchants)
The Worshipful Company of Fishmongers
The Worshipful Company of Goldsmiths
The Worshipful Company of Skinners* (fur traders)
The Worshipful Company of Merchant Taylors* (tailors)
The Worshipful Company of Haberdashers (traders of sewing articles)
The Worshipful Company of Salters (traders of salts and chemicals)
The Worshipful Company of Ironmongers
The Worshipful Company of Vintners (wine merchants)
The Worshipful Company of Clothworkers
The Worshipful Company of Dyers
The Worshipful Company of Brewers
The Worshipful Company of Leathersellers
The Worshipful Company of Pewterers
The Worshipful Company of Barbers (and surgeons and dentists)
The Worshipful Company of Cutlers (knife, sword and cutlery makers)
The Worshipful Company of Bakers
The Worshipful Company of Wax Chandlers (wax candle makers)
The Worshipful Company of Tallow Chandlers (tallow candle makers)
The Worshipful Company of Armourers and Brasiers (armour makers and brass workers)
The Worshipful Company of Girdlers (swordbelt and dressbelt makers)
The Worshipful Company of Butchers
The Worshipful Company of Saddlers
The Worshipful Company of Carpenters
The Worshipful Company of Cordwainers (fine leather workers)
The Worshipful Company of Painter-Stainers
The Worshipful Company of Curriers (tanned leather dressers)
The Worshipful Company of Masons
The Worshipful Company of Plumbers
The Worshipful Company of Innholders
The Worshipful Company of Founders (brass and bronze workers)
The Worshipful Company of Poulters
The Worshipful Company of Cooks
The Worshipful Company of Coopers (barrel makers)
The Worshipful Company of Tylers and Bricklayers
The Worshipful Company of Bowyers (long bow makers)
The Worshipful Company of Fletchers (arrow makers)
The Worshipful Company of Blacksmiths
The Worshipful Company of Joiners and Ceilers (wood craftsmen)
The Worshipful Company of Weavers, the most ancient Company
The Worshipful Company of Woolmen
The Worshipful Company of Scriveners (court document writers and notaries public)
The Worshipful Company of Fruiterers
The Worshipful Company of Plaisterers (plasterers)
The Worshipful Company of Stationers and Newspaper Makers
The Worshipful Company of Broderers (embroiderers)
The Worshipful Company of Upholders (upholsterers)
The Worshipful Company of Musicians
The Worshipful Company of Turners (lathe operators)
The Worshipful Company of Basketmakers
The Worshipful Company of Glaziers and Painters of Glass
The Worshipful Company of Horners (horn workers and plastic)
The Worshipful Company of Farriers (horseshoe makers and horse veterinarians)
The Worshipful Company of Paviors (road and highway pavers)
The Worshipful Company of Loriners (harness makers)
The Worshipful Society of Apothecaries (medical practitioners and pharmacists)
The Worshipful Company of Shipwrights
The Worshipful Company of Spectacle Makers
The Worshipful Company of Clockmakers
The Worshipful Company of Glovers
The Worshipful Company of Feltmakers (hat makers)
The Worshipful Company of Framework Knitters
The Worshipful Company of Needlemakers
The Worshipful Company of Gardeners
The Worshipful Company of Tin Plate Workers
The Worshipful Company of Wheelwrights
The Worshipful Company of Distillers
The Worshipful Company of Pattenmakers (wooden shoe makers)
The Worshipful Company of Glass Sellers
The Worshipful Company of Coachmakers and Coach Harness Makers
The Worshipful Company of Gunmakers
The Worshipful Company of Gold and Silver Wyre Drawers (makers of thread for uniforms)
The Worshipful Company of Makers of Playing Cards
The Worshipful Company of Fanmakers
The Worshipful Company of Carmen
The Honourable Company of Master Mariners, the first of the 20th-century Companies
The City of London Solicitors’ Company
The Worshipful Company of Farmers
The Guild of Air Pilots and Air Navigators
The Worshipful Company of Tobacco Pipe Makers and Tobacco Blenders
The Worshipful Company of Furniture Makers
The Worshipful Company of Scientific Instrument Makers
The Worshipful Company of Chartered Surveyors
The Worshipful Company of Chartered Accountants in England and Wales
The Worshipful Company of Chartered Secretaries and Administrators
The Worshipful Company of Builders Merchants
The Worshipful Company of Launderers
The Worshipful Company of Marketors
The Worshipful Company of Actuaries
The Worshipful Company of Insurers
The Worshipful Company of Arbitrators
The Worshipful Company of Engineers
The Worshipful Company of Fuellers
The Worshipful Company of Lightmongers
The Worshipful Company of Environmental Cleaners
The Worshipful Company of Chartered Architects
The Worshipful Company of Constructors
The Worshipful Company of Information Technologists
The Worshipful Company of World Traders
The Worshipful Company of Water Conservators
The Worshipful Company of Firefighters
The Worshipful Company of Hackney Carriage Drivers (licensed London taxicab drivers)
The Worshipful Company of Management Consultants
The Worshipful Company of International Bankers
The Worshipful Company of Tax Advisers
The Worshipful Company of Security Professionals
Note: *The Skinners’ and Merchant Taylors’ Companies alternate position once per year.

City Companies without Grant of Livery
The Worshipful Company of Parish Clerks
The Company of Watermen and Lightermen
Neither of these companies intends ever to apply for livery; this is a long-standing tradition. The Company of Watermen and Lightermen was established by Act of Parliament in 1555 to control the watermen on the River Thames responsible for the movement of goods and passengers and remains the only ancient City Guild to be formed and controlled by Act of Parliament.

A guild which is recognised by the Court of Aldermen as a ‘London Guild’ applies to the Court to become ‘A Company without Livery.’ After a term of years the company applies to the Court for livery status, at which point it adopts the name “Worshipful Company of … ”

Other Guilds Aiming to Obtain a Grant of Livery
The Guild of Public Relations Practitioners
The Company of Arts Scholars
The Company of Educators
Neither the ‘City Livery Club’ nor ‘The Guild of Freemen of the City of London’ is recognised as a ‘guild’ by the City; they are merely social clubs. The three City of London Manors in Southwark (Guildable, King’s and Great Liberty) are manorial courts and their associations of Jurors and are not guilds, but are legally institutionalised under the Administration of Justice Act 1977.

Posted in British history, Georgian Era, Living in the Regency, real life tales, Regency era, Victorian era | Tagged , , | 4 Comments

Uppark, a National Trust Property, and Boyhood Home of H. G. Wells

Posted on June 18, 2013 by Regina Jeffers

800px-Uppark-Sfront-01 Uppark is a 17th-century house in South Harting, Petersfield, West Sussex, England and a National Trust property.

The house, set high on the South Downs, was built for Ford Grey (1655—1701), the first Earl of Tankerville, c. 1690 and was sold in 1747 to Sir Matthew Fetherstonhaugh and his wife Sarah. Matthew and Sarah redecorated the house extensively from 1750 to 1760 and introduced most of the existing collection of household items displayed today, much of it collected on their Grand Tour of 1749 to 1751. Their only son, Sir Harry Fetherstonhaugh, added to the collection and commissioned Humphry Repton to add a new pillared portico, dairy and landscaped garden. In the 19th century stables and kitchens were added as separate buildings connected to the main building by tunnels.

On 30 August 1989 the building was devastated by a fire caused by a workman’s blowtorch whilst repairing lead flashing on the roof, just two days before the work was due to be completed. The fire broke out during opening hours. Many works of art and pieces of furniture were carried out of the burning building by members of the Meade-Fetherstonehaugh family, National Trust staff and members of the public. Although the garret and first floors collapsed onto the lower floors and the garret and first floor contents were lost completely, the floors largely fell clear of the ground floor walls and much of the panelling and decoration survived. Much of the contents of the ground floor was crushed but not burned; metalwork was able to be straightened and cleaned, crystal chandeliers were able to be reassembled, and even the elaborate tassels on the chandelier ropes were able to be conserved. The decision to restore the house came after it was determined that restoration would be a cheaper insurance settlement than complete payout for a total loss.

Most of the pictures and furniture in the house were saved. The building has since been completely restored with many lost crafts relearned in the restoration process, and it re-opened its doors in 1995.

H.G. Wells spent part of his boyhood at Uppark, where his mother, Sarah, was housekeeper between 1880 and 1893. She had previously been employed there between 1850 and 1855, as housemaid to Lady Fetherstonhaugh’s sister. Wells’ father Joseph, a gardener, was employed at Uppark in 1851, and he and Sarah married in 1853.

Posted in British history, buildings and structures, Georgian Era, Living in the Regency, real life tales, Regency era, Regency personalities, Victorian era | Tagged , , | Comments Off on Uppark, a National Trust Property, and Boyhood Home of H. G. Wells

Charlecote Park, a National Trust Showplace

Posted on June 17, 2013 by Regina Jeffers

800px-Charlecote_Park Charlecote Park is a grand 16th century country house, surrounded by its own deer park, on the banks of the River Avon near Wellesbourne, about 4 miles (6 km) east of Stratford-upon-Avon and 5.5 miles (9 km) south of Warwick, Warwickshire, England. It has been administered by the National Trust since 1946 and is open to the public. It is a Grade I listed building.

The Lucy family has owned the land since 1247. Charlecote Park was built in 1558 by Sir Thomas Lucy, and Queen Elizabeth I stayed in the room that is now the drawing room. Although the general outline of the Elizabethan house remains, nowadays it is in fact mostly Victorian. Successive generations of the Lucy family had modified Charlecote Park over the centuries, but in 1823, George Hammond Lucy (High Sheriff of Warwickshire in 1831) inherited the house and set about recreating the house in its original style.

In the middle of the 19th century the Fairfax Baronets inherited the property when the male line of the Lucy family failed on the death of Henry Spencer Lucy. The baronets changed their family name to Lucy to reflect the traditions of Charlecote.

The Great Hall has a barrel-vaulted ceiling made of plaster painted to look like timber and is a fine setting for the splendid collection of family portraits. Other rooms have richly coloured wallpaper, decorated plaster ceilings and wood panelling. There are magnificent pieces of furniture and fine works of art, including a contemporary painting of Queen Elizabeth I. The original two-storey Elizabethan gatehouse that guards the approach to the house remains unaltered.

Charlecote Park covers 185 acres (75 ha), backing on to the River Avon. William Shakespeare has been alleged to have poached rabbits and deer in the park as a young man and been brought before magistrates as a result. But it is unclear whether there were any deer in the park at that time. It was landscaped by Capability Brown in about 1760.

In the Tudor great hall, the 1680 painting Charlecote Park by Sir Godfrey Kneller, is said to be one of the earliest depictions of a black presence in the West Midlands. The painting, of Captain Thomas Lucy, shows a black boy in the background dressed in a blue livery coat and red stockings and wearing a gleaming, metal collar around his neck. The National Trust’s Charlecote brochure describes the boy as a “black page boy.” In 1735, a black child called Philip Lucy was baptised at Charlecote.

On display at the house is an original letter from Oliver Cromwell, dated 1654, summoning then owner Richard Lucy to the Barebone’s Parliament. Also on display is a 1760 portrait of George Lucy by Thomas Gainsborough, which cost Lucy the sum of eight guineas.

A set of archives for the Lucy family at Charlecote is held by the National Archive. The house also has a display of carriages and a period laundry and brewroom.

In April 2012, Charlecote Park was featured as the venue for BBC1’s Antiques Roadshow.

Posted in British history, buildings and structures, Georgian Era, Living in the Regency, real life tales, Regency era, Regency personalities | Tagged , , , | 1 Comment

Regency Ghost Story from Viscount Robert Stewart Castlereagh

Posted on June 14, 2013 by Regina Jeffers

499px-Lord_Castlereagh_Marquess_of_Londonderry Robert Stewart, 2nd Marquess of Londonderry, KG, GCH, PC, PC (Ire) (18 June 1769 – 12 August 1822), usually known as Lord Castlereagh, was an Irish and British statesman. As British Foreign Secretary, from 1812 he was central to the management of the coalition that defeated Napoleon and was the principal British diplomat at the Congress of Vienna. Castlereagh was also leader of the British House of Commons in the Liverpool government from 1812 until his death by suicide in August 1822. Early in his career, as Chief Secretary for Ireland, he was involved in putting down the Irish Rebellion of 1798 and was instrumental in securing the passage of the Irish Act of Union of 1800.

His foreign policy from 1814 was to work with the leaders represented at the Congress of Vienna to provide a peace in Europe consistent with the conservative mood of the day. Much more than prime minister Lord Liverpool, he was responsible for the repressive domestic measures. Historian Charles Webster concludes:

“There probably never was a statesman whose ideas were so right and whose attitude to public opinion was so wrong. Such disparity between the grasp of ends and the understanding of means amounts to a failure in statesmanship.”

Title
Robert Stewart acquired the courtesy title Viscount Castlereagh in 1796 when his father was created Earl of Londonderry in the Irish peerage. Upon his father’s death in 1821, he succeeded as 2nd Marquess of Londonderry, a title to which his father had been raised in 1816. His younger half-brother, the soldier, politician and diplomat Charles Stewart (later Vane) succeeded him as 3rd Marquess of Londonderry.

Family
Robert Stewart was born in Henry Street, Dublin, Ireland, in 1769 the son of Robert Stewart (1739–1821) of Newtownards and Comber in County Down, with properties in Counties Donegal and Londonderry. The family seat was Mount Stewart, County Down.

The elder Stewart was an Irish politician and prominent Ulster landowner. He was created Baron Londonderry in 1789, Viscount Castlereagh in 1795, and Earl of Londonderry in 1796 by King George III. In 1771 he was elected in the Whig interest to the Irish House of Commons, where he was a supporter of Lord Charlemont and his allies who called for greater independence from Britain. From the Act of Union of 1800, however, he sat in the British House of Lords as an Irish representative peer. In 1816 he was created Marquess of Londonderry by the Prince Regent.

Stewart’s mother, who died in childbirth when he was a year old, was Lady Sarah Frances Seymour, daughter of Francis Seymour-Conway, 1st Marquess of Hertford (a former British Ambassador to France (1764–65) and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (1765–66)) and Isabella Fitzroy, daughter of Charles FitzRoy, 2nd Duke of Grafton. His father remarried five years later to Frances Pratt, daughter of Charles Pratt, 1st Earl Camden (1714–94), a leading English jurist and prominent political supporter of both the 1st Earl of Chatham and his son, William Pitt the Younger. Through the elder Stewart’s marriages, he linked his family with the upper ranks of English nobility and political elites. The Camden connection was to be especially important for the political careers of both him and his elder son. By Frances Pratt, Stewart’s father had three children who survived to adulthood, including Stewart’s half-brother, Charles William Stewart (later Vane), Baron Stewart of Stewart’s Court and Ballylawn in County Donegal (1814) and 3rd Marquess of Londonderry (1822).

In 1794, Stewart married Amelia (Emily) Hobart a daughter of John Hobart, 2nd Earl of Buckinghamshire, a former British Ambassador to Russia (1762–65) and Lord Lieutenant of Ireland (1776–80). Her mother, Caroline Conolly, was the granddaughter of William Conolly, Speaker of the Irish House of Commons in the early 18th century and one of the wealthiest landowners in Ireland. Caroline’s brother, Thomas Conolly, was married to Louisa Lennox, sister of Emily FitzGerald, Duchess of Leinster, whose son and Emily’s cousin-by-marriage, the aristocratic rebel Lord Edward FitzGerald, was a leader of the United Irishmen and one of their martyrs in the early stages of the Irish Rebellion of 1798.

Emily Stewart was well known as a hostess for her husband in both Ireland and London and during some of his most important diplomatic missions. In later years she was a leader of Regency London high society as one of the Lady Patronesses of Almack’s. She is noted in contemporary accounts for her attractiveness, volubility and eccentricities. By all accounts, the two remained devoted to each other to the end, but they had no children. The couple did, however, care for the young Frederick Stewart, while his father, Stewart’s half-brother, Charles, was serving in the army.

Early Life and Career
Stewart had recurring health problems throughout his childhood, and his family elected to send him to The Royal School, Armagh, rather than to England for his secondary education. At the encouragement of Earl Camden, who took a great interest in him and treated him as a grandson by blood, he later attended St. John’s College, Cambridge (1786–87), where he applied himself with greater diligence than expected from an aristocrat and obtained first class in his last examinations. He left Cambridge due to an extended illness, and after returning to Ireland did not pursue further formal education.

In 1790, Stewart was elected as a Member of the Irish Parliament for Down in one of the most expensive elections in Irish history. Though for a time he was associated with the Northern Whig Club, he entered the Irish House of Commons as an Independent. He ran on a platform supporting Whig principles of electoral reform and opposing the Irish policies of the British Government. But even from the outset of his career, he was a personal supporter of the Prime Minister, William Pitt. Stewart was a lifelong advocate of Catholic concessions, though his position on the specific issue of Catholic emancipation varied depending on his assessment of the potential repercussions on other policy priorities.

When war with France forced Government attention on defense of Ireland, the Irish Volunteers, a potential source of disaffection, were disbanded by Dublin Castle, and a reorganised Militia was created in 1793. Stewart enrolled as an officer, a matter of course for a young Protestant aristocrat, and served as Lieutenant Colonel under the command of his wife’s uncle, Thomas Conolly. Between Stewart’s attendance to his militia duties, his pursuit of cultural, family and political interests in London, two trips to the Continent (in 1791, when he visited revolutionary Paris, and 1792), and the courtship of his wife whom he married in 1794, his life during this period was not centered on the activities of the Irish House of Commons, where he was listened to with respect but where he was not yet an important player. He was also beginning to disappoint some of his more radical original supporters in his constituency. As the French Revolution grew more bloody and Ireland more rebellious, Stewart increasingly worried about Ireland’s future if the threats from France succeeded in breaking Ireland’s links to Britain. He became further inclined to support not only Pitt personally but the British Government, even when he did not approve of a specific line taken in Irish policy.

In 1794, partly as a result of the promotion of Stewart’s interests by his Camden connections, he was offered the Government-controlled seat of Tregony in Cornwall, where he was elected to the British House of Commons on a similar platform of reform principles and support for Pitt, on whose side he sat in Westminster. In 1796, he transferred to a seat for the Suffolk constituency of Orford, which was in the interest of his mother’s family, the Seymour-Conways (Marquess of Hertford).

Chief Secretary for Ireland
In 1795, Pitt replaced the popular Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Lord Fitzwilliam, with Stewart’s uncle, the 2nd Earl Camden. Camden’s arrival in Dublin was greeted with riots, and that year Stewart crossed the floor to join the supporters of the British Government. Stewart became an essential adviser to the inexperienced and unpopular Lord Lieutenant, who was Stewart’s senior by only ten years.

In 1796, when the French invasion of Ireland failed at Bantry Bay due to bad weather and not to Ireland’s military preparations or the British Navy, Castlereagh as a leader of the Militia saw first hand how ripe Ireland was for breaking from Britain and becoming another French satellite. Despairing of obtaining timely military support from Britain if Ireland were again threatened with invasion, for the next several years, he was increasingly involved in measures against those promoting rebellion, but his initial principles of reform and emancipation continued to hold a place in his political thought.

In 1797, Castlereagh was at last appointed to office, as Keeper of the King’s Signet for Ireland. As martial law was declared in the face of growing turmoil, he was made both a Lord of the Treasury and a Member of the Privy Council of Ireland (1797–1800). At the urging of Camden, Castlereagh assumed many of the onerous duties of the often-absent Chief Secretary for Ireland who was responsible for day-to-day administration and asserting the influence of Dublin Castle in the House of Commons. In this capacity, and after March 1798 as Acting Chief Secretary, Castlereagh played a key role in crushing the Irish Rebellion of 1798, offering clemency to commoners who had supported the rebellion, and focusing instead on pursuing rebel leaders.

In 1799, in furtherance of both his own political vision and Pitt’s policies, Castlereagh began lobbying in the Irish and British Parliaments for an official union between the two, convinced that it was the best way to soothe the long-standing divides in Ireland, insulate Ireland from further radical disaffection, and protect Britain from French military threats via Ireland. His first attempt, at the opening of the Irish session of 1799, met with failure during long, heated debates. A year of further intense preparation followed, with an impressive display of Machiavellian tactics that included the common practice of bribery through peerages, honours and money, but bribery on a truly uncommon scale. In the summer of 1800, Castlereagh together with the Lord Lieutenant, Marquess Cornwallis, finally succeeded in steering the Irish Act of Union through both Parliaments.

During the campaign for the Act of Union, both Castlereagh and Cornwallis had, in good faith, forwarded informal assurances they had received from Pitt’s Cabinet to the Irish Catholics that they would be allowed to sit in Parliament. Both Castlereagh and Cornwallis knew Catholic emancipation would be critical if their objectives for Union were to be realised. Emancipation was, however, opposed by much of the British establishment, including George III, who was convinced that it would violate his royal oath as protector of the Protestant faith. Pitt tried to follow through on his commitment, but when it came to light that the King had approached Henry Addington, an opponent of Catholic emancipation, about becoming Prime Minister to replace the pro-emancipation Pitt, both Castlereagh and Pitt resigned in protest. Still, Castlereagh would long be held personally responsible by many Catholics in Ireland for the apparent breach of promise and Government’s betrayal of their interests.

In Dublin, he was a member of the Kildare Street Club. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society in 1802.

At Westminster and in Government
When the newly united Parliament of the United Kingdom met in 1801, Castlereagh took his seat in the House of Commons from his Down constituency. By 1802, tensions between Tories supporting emancipation and those opposing had relaxed, and Addington had obtained his desired cessation of hostilities with France (the Peace of Amiens). At a shift in the composition of Addington’s Government, Castlereagh accepted the offer to enter the Cabinet as President of the Board of Control, where he mediated bitter disputes between the Governor-General of India, Richard Wellsley, and the Directors of the East India Company, smoothing quarrels while generally supporting Lord Wellesley’s policies.

After the renewal of the war against Napoleon, at the urging of Castlereagh and other long-time supporters, in 1804 Pitt returned as Prime Minister, and Castlereagh was promoted to Secretary of State for War and the Colonies. As the only other member of Pitt’s Government in the House of Commons, Castlereagh became Pitt’s political deputy, taking on ever more burdens as Pitt’s health continued to decline. After Pitt’s death in 1806, Castlereagh resigned amid the chaos of the Ministry of All the Talents. When that Government collapsed, Castlereagh again became Secretary of State for War and the Colonies in 1807, this time in the ministry of the Duke of Portland.

The Duel with Canning
As minister for War, he became involved in disputes with Foreign Secretary George Canning over the Walcheren Expedition and its failure. Canning saw it as a diversion of troops from the Peninsular War based on a hopeless plan. However, Castlereagh had the support of Lord Wellesley’s younger brother General Arthur Wellesley (future Duke of Wellington), and evidence later surfaced that Canning himself had interfered with the plan, selecting the Earl of Chatham to command the expedition. The Portland government became increasingly paralysed by disputes between the two men. Portland was in deteriorating health and gave no lead, until Canning threatened resignation unless Castlereagh was removed and replaced by Lord Wellesley. Wellesley himself was neither complicit with nor even aware of the arrangement, but Portland secretly agreed to make this change when it became possible.

Castlereagh discovered the deal in September 1809 and demanded redress. He challenged Canning to a duel, which Canning accepted. Canning had never before fired a pistol. The duel was fought on 21 September 1809 on Putney Heath. Canning missed but Castlereagh wounded his opponent in the thigh. There was much outrage that two cabinet ministers had resorted to such a method, and they both felt compelled to resign from the government. Six months later, Canning published a full account of his actions in the affair, and many who had initially rallied to him became convinced Castlereagh had been betrayed by his cabinet colleague.

Diplomatic Career
Marble bust of Castlereagh by Joseph Nollekens, 1821. Yale Center for British Art
Three years later, in 1812, Castlereagh returned to the government, this time as Foreign Secretary, a role in which he served for the next ten years. He also became leader of the House of Commons in the wake of Spencer Perceval’s assassination in 1812. In his role of Foreign Secretary he was instrumental in negotiating what has become known as the quadruple alliance between Britain, Austria, Russia, and Prussia at Chaumont in March 1814, in the negotiation of the Treaty of Paris that brought peace with France, and at the Congress of Vienna.

At the Congress of Vienna, Castlereagh designed and proposed a form of collective and collaborative security for Europe, then called a Congress system. In the Congress system, the main signatory powers met periodically (every two years or so) and collectively managed European affairs. This system was successfully used to resolve the Polish-Saxon crisis at Vienna and the question of Greek independence at Laibach. The following ten years saw five European Congresses where disputes were resolved with a diminishing degree of effectiveness. Finally, by 1822, the whole system had collapsed because of the irreconcilable differences of opinion among Britain, Austria, and Russia, and because of the lack of support for the Congress system in British public opinion. The Holy Alliance, which Castlereagh opposed, lingered for some time, however, and even had effects on the international stage as late as the Crimean war. The order created by the Congress of Vienna was also more successful than Congresses themselves, preventing major European land wars until the First World War a century later. Scholars and historians have seen the Congress system as a forerunner of the modern collective security, international unity, and cooperative agreements of NATO, the EU, the League of Nations, and the United Nations.

In the years 1812 to 1822, Castlereagh continued to competently manage Britain’s foreign policy, generally pursuing a policy of continental engagement uncharacteristic of British foreign policy in the nineteenth century. Castlereagh was not known to be an effective public speaker and his diplomatic presentation style was at times abstruse. Henry Kissinger says he developed a reputation for integrity, consistency, and goodwill, which was perhaps unmatched by any diplomat of that era. His views on foreign policy were ahead of his time.

Decline and Death
Despite his contributions to the defeat of Napoleon and restoration of peace, Castlereagh became extremely unpopular at home. He was attacked for his construction of a peace that gave a free hand to reactionary governments on the Continent to suppress dissent. He was also condemned for his association with repressive measures of the Home Secretary, Lord Sidmouth (the former Prime Minister Addington). As Leader of the House of Commons for the Liverpool Government, he was often called upon to defend government policy in the House. He had to support the widely reviled measures taken by Sidmouth and the others, including the infamous Six Acts, in order to remain in cabinet and continue his diplomatic work. For these reasons, Castlereagh appears with other members of Lord Liverpool’s Cabinet in Shelley’s poem The Masque of Anarchy, which was inspired by, and heavily critical of, the Peterloo massacre:

I met Murder on the way –
He had a face like Castlereagh –
Very smooth he looked, yet grim;
Seven bloodhounds followed him
All were fat; and well they might
Be in admirable plight,
For one by one, and two by two,
He tossed them human hearts to chew
Which from his wide cloak he drew.

After the death of his father in 1821, Castlereagh became the 2nd Marquess of Londonderry. As a non-representative Irish peer Londonderry was eligible to sit in the House of Commons though he had to leave his Irish seat and instead be elected to an English seat. In 1822, he began to suffer from a form of paranoia or a nervous breakdown, possibly as a result of an attack of gout combined with the stress of public criticism. He was also severely overworked with both his responsibilities in leading the government in the House and the never-ending diplomacy required to manage conflicts among the other major powers. At the time, he said “My mind, is, as it were, gone.” Londonderry returned to his country seat at Loring Hall in Water Lane, North Cray, Kent on the advice of his doctor. On 9 August 1822 he had an audience with King George IV in which he appeared distracted and mentally disturbed. Among other surprising remarks he revealed to the King that he thought he was being blackmailed for homosexuality.

On 12 August, although his wife had succeeded in removing razors from his possession and even though his doctor was in attendance, Castlereagh managed to find a pen knife with which he committed suicide by cutting his own throat.

An inquest concluded that the act had been committed while insane, avoiding the harsh strictures of a felo de se verdict. The verdict allowed Lady Londonderry to see her husband buried with honour in Westminster Abbey near his mentor, William Pitt. Some radicals, notably William Cobbett, claimed a “cover-up” within the government and viewed the verdict and Castlereagh’s public funeral as a damning indictment of the elitism and privilege of the unreformed electoral system. His funeral on 20 August was greeted with jeering and insults along the processional route, although not to the level of unanimity projected in the radical press. A funeral monument was not erected until 1850 by his half-brother and successor, Charles Stewart Vane, 3rd Marquess of Londonderry.

Sometime after Castlereagh’s death, Lord Byron wrote a savage quip about his grave:
Posterity will ne’er survey
A nobler grave than this:
Here lie the bones of Castlereagh:
Stop, traveller, and piss.

And yet, some of Castlereagh’s political opponents were gracious in their epigrams. Henry Brougham, a Whig politician and later the Lord Chancellor, who had battled frequently with Castlereagh, once almost to the point of calling him out, and had denigrated his skills as Leader, wrote in the week following Castlereagh’s death:

Put all their other men together in one scale, and poor Castlereagh in the other – single he plainly weighed them down… One can’t help feeling a little for him, after being pitted against him for several years, pretty regularly. It is like losing a connection suddenly. Also he was a gentleman, and the only one amongst them.

An English Heritage blue plaque is displayed at the entrance to the listed building Loring Hall, now a care facility for those with learning disabilities, in commemoration of Castlereagh, who occupied the property from 1811 until his death.

Ghost Story
Robert Stewart was said to have seen a ghost in the barracks at Ballyshannon one night. He claimed that the face of a boy came out of the fireplace and approached him. When he stepped forward toward it, it receded and then faded away. Castlereagh supposedly told this story to Sir Walter Scott, and called the apparition “The Radiant Boy.”

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Regency Personality: Prince Adolphus, Duke of Cambridge

Posted on June 13, 2013 by Regina Jeffers

Adolphus_Frederick_Duke_of_Cambridge The Prince Adolphus, 1st Duke of Cambridge KG GCB GCMG GCH PC (Adolphus Frederick; 24 February 1774 – 8 July 1850), was the tenth child and seventh son of George III and Queen Charlotte. He held the title of Duke of Cambridge from 1801 until his death. He also served as Viceroy of Hanover on behalf of his brothers George IV and William IV. He was the grandfather of Mary of Teck, Queen consort of King George V and great-great-grandfather of the current monarch, Elizabeth II.

Early Life
Prince Adolphus was born at Buckingham Palace. He was the youngest son of George and Charlotte to survive childhood. On 24 March 1774, the young prince was christened in the Great Council Chamber at St James’s Palace by Frederick Cornwallis, Archbishop of Canterbury. His godparents were Prince John Adolphus of Saxe-Gotha-Altenburg (his great-uncle, for whom the Earl of Hertford, Lord Chamberlain, stood proxy), Landgrave Charles of Hesse-Kassel (his first cousin once-removed, for whom the Earl of Jersey, Extra Lord of the Bedchamber, stood proxy) and Princess Wilhelmina of Orange (the wife of his first cousin once-removed, for whom Elizabeth Howard, Dowager Countess of Effingham, former Lady of the Bedchamber to Queen Charlotte, stood proxy).

He was tutored at home until summer 1786, when he was sent to the University of Göttingen in Germany, along with his brothers Prince Ernest (created Duke of Cumberland in 1799) and Prince Augustus (created Duke of Sussex in 1801).

Military Career
He was made honorary Colonel-in-Chief of the Hanoverian Guard Foot Regiment 1789–1803, but his military training began in 1791, when he and Prince Ernest went to Hanover to study under the supervision of the Hanoverian commander Field Marshal von Freytag. He remained on Freytag’s staff during the Flanders Campaign in 1793. His first taste of action was at Famars on 23 May. He was wounded and captured at the Battle of Hondschoote 6 September, but was quickly rescued. As a Hanovarian General-Major, he commanded a Hessian brigade under his paternal uncle, General Johann Ludwig von Wallmoden-Gimborn in Autumn 1794, then commanded the Hanovarian Guards during the retreat through Holland. Remaining in Germany, he commanding a brigade of the Corps of Observation, 22 October 1796 – 12 January 1798. He was made a British army colonel in 1794, and lieutenant general 24 August 1798. In 1800 – stationed in the Electorate of Hanover – he attended the foundation of a village in the course of the cultivation and colonisation of the moorlands in the north of Bremen and named the municipality after himself Adolphsdorf (since 1974 a component locality of Grasberg).

Over the course of the War of the Second Coalition against France (1799–1802), he travelled to Berlin in 1801, in order to prevent the impending Prussian occupation of the Electorate. France demanded it, as it was stipulated in the Treaty of Basel (1795), obliging Prussia to ensure the Holy Roman Empire’s neutrality in all the latter’s territories north the demarcation line of the river Main, including Hanover. Regular Hanoveran troops, therefore, had been commandeered to join the multilateral so-called “Demarcation Army.” His efforts were in vain. In 1803, he was senior army commander, and replaced Wallmoden as commander of the on the Weser 1 June. With the advance of French forces on one side and 24,000 Prussian soldiers on the other, the situation was hopeless. Cambridge refused to become involved in discussions of capitulation, handed over his command to Hammerstein (Ompteda claims he was forced to resign), and withdrew to England. A plan to recruit additional soldiers in Hanover to be commanded by the Prince had also failed.

In 1803, he was appointed as commander-in-chief of the newly founded King’s German Legion, and in 1813, he became field marshal. George III appointed Prince Adolphus a Knight of the Garter on 6 June 1786, and created him Duke of Cambridge, Earl of Tipperary, and Baron Culloden on 17 November 1801.

The Duke served as colonel-in-chief of the Coldstream Regiment of Foot Guards (Coldstream Guards after 1855) from September 1805, and as colonel-in-chief of the 60th (The Duke of York’s Own Rifle Corps) Regiment of Foot from January 1824. After the collapse of the Napoleon’s empire, he became Military Governor of Hanover 4 November 1813 – 24 October 1816, then Governor General of Hanover 24 October 1816 – 20 June 1837 (viceroy from 22 February 1831). He was made Field Marshal 26 November 1813. In his time as Hanoverian Viceroy, the Duke became name-giving for the Hanoveran Regiment of the Cambridge-Dragoons (German: Cambridge-Dragoner), stationed in Celle, where the Bundeswehr used their baracks, the Cambridge-Dragoner Kaserne, until 1995. The march of the Hannoversches Cambridge-Dragoner-Regiment is part of the Bundeswehr’s traditional music repertoire.

Marriage
After the death of Princess Charlotte in 1817, the Duke was set the task of finding a bride for his eldest unmarried brother, the Duke of Clarence (later William IV), in the hope of securing heirs to the throne—Charlotte had been the only legitimate grandchild of George III, despite the fact that the King had twelve surviving children. After several false starts, the Duke of Clarence settled on Princess Adelaide of Saxe-Meiningen. The way was cleared for the Duke of Cambridge to find a bride for himself.

The Duke of Cambridge was married first at Kassel, Hesse on 7 May and then at Buckingham Palace on 1 June 1818 to his second cousin Augusta (25 July 1797 – 6 April 1889), the third daughter of Prince Frederick of Hesse.

He was, as is shown in the list of issue below, the maternal grandfather of Mary of Teck, consort of George V. This makes Adolphus the great-great-grandfather of the present British monarch, Elizabeth II

Viceroy
From 1816 to 1837, the Duke of Cambridge served as viceroy of the Kingdom of Hanover on behalf of his elder brothers, George IV and later William IV.[1] When his niece, Queen Victoria succeeded to the British throne on 20 June 1837, the 123-year union of the crowns of Great Britain (the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland from 1801) and Hanover ended. The Duke of Cumberland became King Ernest Augustus I of Hanover and the Duke of Cambridge returned to Britain.

Later Life
The Duke of Cambridge died on 8 July 1850 at Cambridge House, Piccadilly, London, and was buried at Kew. His remains were later removed to St George’s Chapel, Windsor Castle. His only son, Prince George, succeeded to his peerages.

Titles, Styles, Honours and Arms
Titles and Styles
24 February 1774 – 17 November 1801: His Royal Highness The Prince Adolphus
17 November 1801 – 8 July 1850: His Royal Highness The Duke of Cambridge
His full style at death was Field Marshal His Royal Highness The Prince Adolphus Frederick, Duke of Cambridge, Earl of Tipperary, Baron Culloden, Knight of the Most Noble Order of the Garter, Member of Her Majesty’s Most Honourable Privy Council, Knight Grand Cross of the Most Honourable Military Order of the Bath, Knight Grand Cross of the Most Distinguished Order of Saint Michael and Saint George, Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Guelphic Order

Honours
British Honours
KG: Knight of the Garter, 6 June 1786
GCB: Knight Grand Cross of the Bath, 2 January 1815
GCMG: Knight Grand Cross of St Michael and St George, 20 June 1825 – later Grand Master of the Order
PC: Privy Counsellor, 1802
GCH: Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Guelphic Order, 12 August 1815
Overseas Honours
Knight of the Order of the Black Eagle (Prussia)
Knight of the Order of St Andrew (Russia) 1844

Arms
The Duke’s arms were the Royal Arms of the House of Hanover, with a three point label of difference. The first and third points containing two hearts, and the centre point bearing a red cross. His arms were adopted by his youngest daughter, Princess Mary Adelaide, and her heirs included them in their arms quartered with the arms of the Duke of Teck.

Issue

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge had three children:
Prince George, Duke of Cambridge (26 March 1819 to 17 March 1904) married 1847, Sarah Louisa Fairbrother; had issue (this marriage was contracted in contravention of the Royal Marriages Act and was not recognized in Law).

Princess Augusta of Cambridge (19 July 1822 to 4 December 1916) married 1843, Friedrich Wilhelm, Grand Duke of Mecklenberg-Strelitz; had issue

Princess Mary Adelaide of Cambridge (27 November 1833 to 27 October 1897) married 1866, Francis, Duke of Teck; had issue, including Mary of Teck, later Queen consort of the United Kingdom.

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Regency Personality: Lady Hester Lucy Stanhope, British Socialite, Adventurer, and Traveler

Posted on June 12, 2013 by Regina Jeffers

468px-Hester_Stanhope Lady Hester Lucy Stanhope (12 March 1776 – 23 June 1839) was a British socialite, adventurer and traveler. Her archaeological expedition to Ashkelon in 1815 is considered the first modern excavation in the history of Holy Land archeology. Her use of a medieval Italian document is described as “one of the earliest uses of textual sources by field archaeologists.”

Lady Hester Lucy Stanhope was the eldest child of Charles Stanhope, 3rd Earl Stanhope, by his first wife, Lady Hester Pitt. She was born at her father’s seat of Chevening and lived there until early in 1800, when she was sent to live with her grandmother, Hester Pitt, Countess of Chatham, at Burton Pynsent.

In August 1803, she became chief of the household of her uncle, William Pitt the Younger. In his position as British Prime Minister, Pitt, who was unmarried, needed a hostess. Lady Hester sat at the head of his table and assisted in welcoming his guests; she became known for her beauty and conversational skills. When Pitt was out of office, she served as his private secretary. She was also the prime initiator of the gardens at Walmer Castle during his tenure as Lord Warden of the Cinque Ports. Britain awarded her an annual pension of £1200 after Pitt’s death in January 1806. After living for some time at Montagu Square in London, she moved to Wales, and then left England for good in February 1810 after the death of her brother. A romantic disappointment is said to have prompted her decision to go to a long sea voyage.

Among her entourage were her physician and later biographer Charles Meryon, her maid, Anne Fry, and Michael Bruce, who became her lover. It is claimed that when they arrived in Athens, the poet, Lord Byron, dived into the sea to greet her. From Athens they traveled to Constantinople, capital of the Ottoman Empire, and intended to proceed to Cairo, only recently emerged from the chaos following Napoleon’s invasion of Egypt and the international conflicts that followed.

Journey to the Near and Middle East
En route to Cairo, the ship encountered a storm and was shipwrecked on Rhodes. With all their possessions gone, the party borrowed Turkish clothing. Stanhope refused to wear a veil, choosing the garb of a Turkish male: robe, turban and slippers. When a British frigate took them to Cairo, she bought a purple velvet robe, embroidered trousers, waistcoat, jacket, saddle and saber. In this costume she went to greet the Pasha.

From Cairo she continued her travels in the Middle East. Over a period of two years she visited Gibraltar, Malta, the Ionian Islands, the Peloponnese, Athens, Constantinople, Rhodes, Egypt, Palestine, Lebanon and Syria. She refused to wear a veil even in Damascus. In Jerusalem, the Church of the Holy Sepulchre was cleared of visitors and reopened in her honour.

Learning from fortune-tellers that her destiny was to become the bride of a new messiah, she made matrimonial overtures to Ibn Saud, the chief of the Wahabies. She decided to visit the city of Palmyra, even though the route went through a desert with potentially hostile Bedouins. She dressed as a Bedouin and took with her a caravan of 22 camels to carry her baggage. Emir Mahannah el Fadel received her and she became known as “Queen Hester.”

Archaeological Expedition
According to Charles Meryon, she came into possession of a medieval Italian manuscript copied from the records of a monastery somewhere in Syria. According to this document, a great treasure was hidden under the ruins of a mosque at the port city of Ashkelon, which had been lying in ruins for 600 years. In 1815, on the strength of this map, she traveled to the ruins of Ashkelon on the Mediterranean coast north of Gaza, and persuaded the Ottoman authorities to allow her to excavate the site. The governor of Jaffa, Abu Nabbut (Father of the Cudgel) was ordered to accompany her. This resulted in the first archaeological excavation in Palestine. While she did not find the hoard of three million gold coins reportedly buried there, the excavators unearthed a seven-foot headless marble statue. She ordered the statue to be smashed into “a thousand pieces” and thrown into the sea.

Life Amongst the Arabs
Lady Hester settled near Sidon, a town on the Mediterranean coast in what is now Lebanon, about halfway between Tyre and Beirut. She lived first in the disused Mar Elias monastery at the village of Abra, and then in another monastery, Deir Mashmousheh, southwest of the Casa of Jezzine. Her companion, Miss Williams, and medical attendant, Dr Charles Meryon, remained with her for some time; but Miss Williams died in 1828, and Meryon left in 1831, only returning for a final visit from July 1837 to August 1838.

When Meryon left for England, Lady Hester moved to a remote abandoned monastery at Joun, a village eight miles from Sidon, where she lived until her death. Her residence, known by the villagers as Dahr El Sitt, was at the top of a hill. Meryon implied that she liked the house because of its strategic location, “the house on the summit of a conical hill, whence comers and goers might be seen on every side.”

At first she was greeted by emir Bashir Shihab II, but over the years she gave sanctuary to hundreds of refugees of Druze inter-clan and inter-religious squabbles and earned his enmity. In her new setting, she wielded almost absolute authority over the surrounding districts. Her control over the natives was enough to cause Ibrahim Pasha, when about to invade Syria in 1832, to seek her neutrality, and this supremacy was maintained by her commanding character and by the belief that she possessed the gift of divination.

She kept up a correspondence with important people and received curious visitors who went out of their way to visit her. Finding herself deeply in debt, her pension from England was used to pay off her creditors in Syria. She became a recluse and her servants began to take off with her possessions because she could not pay them. She would not receive visitors until dark and then would only let them see her hands and face. She wore a turban over her shaven head.

Memoirs
In 1846, some years after her death, Dr Meryon published three volumes of Memoirs of the Lady Hester Stanhope as related by herself in Conversations with her Physician, and these were followed in the succeeding year by three volumes of Travels of Lady Hester Stanhope, forming the Completion of her Memoirs narrated by her Physician.lady hester stanhope 3

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