Hugh Fortescue, 2nd Earl Fortescue

Hugh Fortescue, 2nd Earl Fortescue KG, PC (13 February 1783 – 14 September 1861), styled Viscount Ebrington from 1789 to 1841, was a British Whig politician.

The Earl Fortescue
Fortescue, engraving by W. Holl from a painting by George Hayter
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland
In office
13 March 1839 – 11 September 1841
MonarchVictoria
Prime MinisterThe Viscount Melbourne
Preceded byThe Marquess of Normanby
Succeeded byThe Earl de Grey
Personal details
Born(1783-02-13)13 February 1783
Died14 September 1861(1861-09-14) (aged 78)
NationalityBritish
Political partyWhig
Spouse(s)(1) Lady Susan Ryder
(1796–1827)
(2) Elizabeth Geale
(c. 1805–1896)
ChildrenHugh Fortescue, 3rd Earl Fortescue
John Fortescue
Dudley Fortescue
Parent(s)Hugh Fortescue, 1st Earl Fortescue
Hester Grenville
Alma materBrasenose College, Oxford

He was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland from 1839 to 1841.

Early life

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Fortescue was the eldest son of Hugh Fortescue, 1st Earl Fortescue, and Hester Grenville, daughter of Prime Minister George Grenville. He was educated at Eton and Brasenose College, Oxford.[1]

Career

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Fortescue (as Ebrington) first became an MP for Barnstaple, just after his 21st birthday; and he sat for various constituencies almost continuously until 1839, when he was summoned to the House of Lords through a writ of acceleration in his father's junior title of Baron Fortescue.[1]

Ebrington had entered Parliament in the 1800s as a Grenvillite connection, belonging to that section of the Whig party that supported the war with Napoleon; but in the following decade (in a generational shift) he broke away from them to join the Young Whigs.[2] Fearing the corruptive effects of militarism on British society,[3] the latter sympathised with the liberalising side of the French Revolution: Ebrington would later publish his conversations with Napoleon in his Elba exile.[4]

After the war, in 1817, Ebrington confirmed his breach with the bulk of his Grenville relatives,[5] and emerged as a prominent pro-Reform Whig—albeit one somewhat unusually rooted in a liberal, morally intense Anglicanism,[6]—which he combined with an interest in political economy.[7] Ebrington strongly condemned the Six Acts as ”the most alarming attack ever made by Parliament upon the liberties and constitution of the country”;[8] and during the 1820s, he would repeatedly promote and vote for Parliamentary Reform.[5]

When the Whigs finally came to power in 1830, Ebrington played a significant part in the passing of the Great Reform Act. After the Commons passed the second bill, Ebrington convened a meeting of 100 reformist Whigs, urging strong measures should the Lords reject it, and acting as leader of a pressure group lobbying the Whig leadership: Ebrington himself appeared on a list of potential peer-creations that was drawn up to increase the pressure on the Lords.[9] When the Government resigned in the face of Tory intransigence in the House of Lords, Ebrington took the lead, despite leadership hesitations, in moving that the House of Commons implore the King “to call to his councils such persons only as will carry into effect unimpaired in all its essential provisions that Bill for reforming the Representation of the people which has recently passed this House”.[10]

During the 1830s, Ebrington led a strong body of Reformist Whigs;[5] and he played a prominent role in establishing Whig party organisation under the new electoral system.[11] In 1839, as Baron Fortescue, he served under Lord Melbourne as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland,[12] until in 1841 he succeeded his father in the earldom. He went on to serve under Lord John Russell as Lord Steward from 1846 to 1850; was sworn of the Privy Council in 1839; and created a Knight of the Garter in 1856.[1]

Fortescue was also Colonel of the 1st Devon Militia, headquartered in Exeter Castle.[1]

West Buckland School

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Marble bust of Fortescue at West Buckland School

In 1858, together with the Rev. Joseph Lloyd Brereton, a prebendary of Exeter Cathedral and Rector of West Buckland, Fortescue founded the Devon County School (now called West Buckland School), on land he donated between West and East Buckland, previously part of his North Devon estate centred at Filleigh. The school was intended to provide a top quality education to local boys, including therefore the sons of many of his tenant farmers; it continues today as an independent private school. A marble bust of Fortescue, wearing the Garter Star, sculpted in 1861 by Edward Bowring Stephens, stands on the staircase of the school's Memorial Hall.[1]

Personal life

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Fortescue married firstly in 1817 Susan Ryder (died 1827), a daughter of Dudley Ryder, 1st Earl of Harrowby. They had three sons:[1]

In 1841, fourteen years after the death of his first wife, Fortescue married secondly Elizabeth Geale (died May 1896), a daughter of Piers Geale and the widow of Sir Marcus Somerville, 4th Baronet (c. 1775–1831).[1]

Fortescue died in September 1861, aged 78, and was succeeded by his eldest son from his first marriage, Hugh Fortescue.[1]

Portraits

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Statue of Fortescue by Edward Bowring Stephens, 1863, in Castle Yard, Exeter

A statue of Fortescue stands in Exeter Castle Yard, and his marble bust is displayed on the staircase of the Memorial Hall in West Buckland School. 49 of the Fortescue family portraits were saved from the disastrous fire at Castle Hill of 9 March 1934 with minor smoke damage, but were shortly afterwards all destroyed by fire when the delivery lorry returning them from the restorer caught fire whilst parked overnight pending their return to Castle Hill.[13]

Arms

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Fortescue's coat of arms is blazoned azure, a bend engrailled argent plain cottised or, and the Motto is Forte Scutum Salus Ducum ("A Strong Shield is the Salvation of Leaders").[14]

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Sources

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References

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  1. ^ a b c d e f g h "Fortescue" in Rosemary Lauder, Devon Families (Tiverton, 2002), pp. 75–82
  2. ^ B. Hilton, A Mad, Bad and Dangerous People? (Oxford 2006) p. 205
  3. ^ E. A. Wasson, Whig Renaissance (Garland 1987) p. 64
  4. ^ M. Zarzeizny, 'Mmeteors that Enlighten the Earth (2012) p. 147
  5. ^ a b c Fortescue, Hugh
  6. ^ R. Brown, Church and State in Modern Britain (2002) p. 236
  7. ^ B. Hilton, A Mad, Bad and Dangerous People? (Oxford 2006) p. 205 and p. 521-3
  8. ^ E. Wasson, A History of Modern Britain (2016) p. 141
  9. ^ E. Pearce, Reform! (London 2003) p. 167 and p. 238
  10. ^ Quoted in E. Pearce, Reform! (London 2003) p. 284
  11. ^ P. Gray, Famine, Land and Politics (1999) p. 20
  12. ^ E. Halevy, The Triumph of Reform (London 1961) p. 198
  13. ^ Lauder, R., op. cit., p. 81
  14. ^ Debrett's Peerage, 1968, p.461
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Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Barnstaple
1804–1807
With: William Devaynes
William Taylor
Succeeded by
Preceded by Member of Parliament for St Mawes
1807–1809
With: Scrope Bernard to 1808
Earl Gower from 1808
Succeeded by
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Buckingham
1812–1817
With: William Fremantle
Succeeded by
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Devon
1818–1820
With: Edmund Pollexfen Bastard
Succeeded by
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Tavistock
1820–1830
With: John Peter Grant to 1826
Lord William Russell 1826–1830
Lord Russell from 1830
Succeeded by
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Devon
1830–1832
With: Sir Thomas Dyke-Acland, Bt, to 1831
Lord John Russell from 1831
Constituency abolished
New constituency Member of Parliament for North Devon
1832–1839
With: Newton Fellowes to 1837
Sir Thomas Dyke Acland, Bt from 1837
Succeeded by
Honorary titles
Preceded by Lord Lieutenant of Devon
1839–1861
Succeeded by
Vice-Admiral of Devon
1839–1861
Vacant
Political offices
Preceded by Lord Lieutenant of Ireland
1839–1841
Succeeded by
Preceded by Lord Steward
1846–1850
Succeeded by
Peerage of Great Britain
Preceded by Earl Fortescue
1841–1861
Succeeded by
Baron Fortescue
(writ in acceleration)
(descended by acceleration)

1839–1859