by Roger Powell
Sadly George never came to terms with his lot and he was still writing to Lord Melbourne (RA-GEO/Add 39/629) about the possibility of succeeding Major General Sir Henry Frederick Bouverie as Governor of Malta in 1839, and to the Duke of Wellington about money or lack of it as late as 15 December 1841 (RA-GEO/Add 39/637). Three months later, on 20 March 1842, a disappointed man and aged only forty-eight, he shot himself at his home in Belgravia, just five years after his father’s death, and with a pistol presented to him by his uncle George when Prince of Wales. Greville’s Memoirs note that
‘he was a man not without talent, but wrongheaded, and having had the folly to quarrel with his father and estrange himself from Court during the greater part of his reign, he fell into comparative obscurity and real poverty, and there can be no doubt that the disappointment of the expectations he once formed, together with the domestic unhappiness of a dawdling, ill conditioned vexatious wife, preyed upon his mind and led him to this act.
His will was proved at under £40,000 and his widow died nine months later in December 1842. One hundred and sixty years later the Earldom of Munster is now extinct in the male line upon the death in 2002 of the 7th and last Earl, Anthony Charles. He was a graphic designer and a stained glass conservator and he and his ancestors before him, bore the Royal Arms of King William IV, shorn of the escutcheon of the arch treasurer of the Holy Roman Empire and of the Crown of Hanover, but with a baton sinister azure, charged with three anchors or. However, descendants of Mrs Jordan and William IV still survive to this day through the marriages of their many daughters.
Sophia, Baroness De L’Isle & Dudley, (née FitzClarence) (1795–1837)
The eldest daughter of Mrs Jordan by her Royal lover the Duke of Clarence, later King William IV, was born on 4 March 1795 in Somerset Street, off Portman Square. At the beginning of their association the Duke had given Dora (as he called her) an annual allowance of £1,000, but on the instruction of his father, King George III, the Duke of Clarence then wrote suggesting that he should halve her allowance to £500. By way of reply, Mrs Jordan sent him the bottom half of a playbill bearing the words ‘No money will be returned after the rising of the curtain’.
Sophia was a great favourite with her father and there are many references to her in the letters written by both her father and her mother, all of which are preserved in the Royal Archives. In particular, from 1811 onwards, she spent a great deal of time with her father following the break up of her parent’s long association. Mrs Jordan had negotiated a good settlement whereby the Duke paid £41,360 to produce £4,400 per annum (in a Deed of Covenant and Declaration of Trust, dated 23 December 1811 – RA-GEO/ADD/40/254). However, Sophia and her brothers were excluded, despite the fact that there was provision for her four younger sisters. Unlike her elder brothers, who enjoyed the company of their parents, Sophia seems to have taken her father’s side over the separation, so much so, that Mrs Jordan was forced to declare:
‘To say that Sophy’s conduct towards me is reprehensible to too gentle a name for it. It is shocking to reflect how a young creature can without the smallest remorse break through the first and most sacred tie of human nature. Her selflove seems to have stifled every amiable and natural affection. Poor girl, I lament and pity her, her disappointments must in proportion to her selfishness be severe. She never writes, and at a review, tho’ within our carriage. She left the place to avoid speaking to me. It was taken notice of and mentioned in London. I don’t think even her father could approve of such unprecedented conduct, and that is saying a great deal’
1 Edward IV
2 Arms of Arthur Plantagenet, Viscount Lisle
3 Richard III
4 Henry VII
5 Henry VIII
6 His son Henry FitzRoy, Duke of Richmond & Somerset
7 Charles II
8 His bastards: Sir James Fitzroy, Duke of Monmouth & Buccleuch and his coat of arms
9 His bastards: Sir James Fitzroy, Duke of Monmouth & Buccleuch and his coat of arms
10 Charlotte Howard, Countess of Yarmouth
11 Charles FitzCharles, Earl of Plymouth
12 Anne, Countess of Sussex
13 Sir Charles FitzRoy, Duke of Southampton & Cleveland and his coat of arms
14 Sir Charles FitzRoy, Duke of Southampton & Cleveland and his coat of arms
15 Sir Henry FitzRoy, Duke of Grafton and his coat of arms
16 Sir Henry FitzRoy, Duke of Grafton and his coat of arms
17 Lady Charlotte FitzRoy, Countess of Lichfield
18 Sir George FitzRoy, Duke of Northumberland
19 Sir Charles Beauclerk, Duke of St Albans and his coat of arms
20 Sir Charles Beauclerk, Duke of St Albans and his coat of arms
21 James, Lord Beaucl
22 Lady Barbara FitzRoy
23 Sir Charles Lennox, Duke of Richmond & Lennox
24 Sir Charles Lennox, Duke of Richmond & Lennox
25 Lady Mary Tudor, Countess of Derwter
26 James II
Three of James II’ illegititimate offspring
27 Henrietta, Baroness Waldegrave
28 James FitzJames, Duke of Berwick upon Tweed
29 Katherine, Duchess of Buckinghamshire and Normanby
30 ‘Bonnie’ Prince Charles Edward Stuart
31 His daughter Charlotte Stuart, Duchess of Albany and her coat of arms
32 His daughter Charlotte Stuart, Duchess of Albany and her coat of arms
33 George I and his coat of arms
34 George I and his coat of arms
35 His daughter Petronelle, Countess of Chesterfield
36 George II
37 Frederick Prince of Wales, son of George II
38 George Prince of Wales, later George IV
39 William IV
40 His bastards: George Augustus Frederick FitzClarence, Earl of Munster and his coat of arms
41 His bastards: George Augustus Frederick FitzClarence, Earl of Munster and his coat of arms
42 Sophia, Baroness De L’Isle & Dudley
43 Henry Edward FitzClarence
44 Lady Mary Fox
45 Lieutenant-General Lord Frederick FitzClarence
46 Rear Admiral Lord Adolphus FitzClarence
47 The Rev Lord Augustus FitzClarence
48 Henry Carey, Baron Hunsdon
49 Catherine, Lady Knollys
50 Mary Walter
51 Count Blomberg or The Rev Frederick William Blomberg
52 King Edward VII
53 The arms of the House of Windsor
54 The Hon. Maynard Greville
55 His coat of arms
56 Sonia Rosemary Cubit
57 The arms of the Earls of Albemarle
58 Prince Albert Victor Christian Edward, Duke of Clarence & Avondale
59 David, Prince of Wales, later King Edward VIII and Duke of Windsor
60 (William) Anthony, 2nd Viscount Furness
61 Timothy Ward Seely
Mrs. Jordan was obviously very distraught about the split and wrote to the Duke expressing her feelings thus: ‘on the eve of quitting this place for ever (Bushey Park) with sensations of regret and pleasure scarcely describable’.
But at least the Duke, unlike his brother King George IV, did ensure that his children were publicly acknowledged upon his accession. As with her siblings, Sophia was granted by Royal Warrant in 1831 the precedence of a younger child of a Marquess and in 1818 all five sisters were granted a pension of £500.
Rather surprisingly, Sophia did not marry until she was thirty years old. Her husband Philip Charles Sidney, of an illustrious family, was five years younger than his bride, and it was not until 1835, ten years after their marriage, that he was raised to the peerage as 1st Baron De L’Isle and Dudley, of Penshurst He was successively an equerry to the King (William IV), a Lord of the Bedchamber and Surveyor General of the Duchy of Cornwall and had been appointed KCH and GCH.
Despite her advanced age, which curiously was the same as when her m
other began her association with the Duke of Clarence, the marriage produced a number of children including two daughters. Of these, Adelaide, named in honour of the Queen, married her cousin Frederick FitzClarence but died without issue; and Sophia married Count Alexander Kielmansegg, a descendant of Sophia Dorothea Kielmansegg, half sister of King George I.
Sadly Sophia died at the early age of just forty-two, at Kensington Palace on 10 April 1837, having recently been appointed ‘Housekeeper’ thereof, and there is a brief reference to this in Queen Victoria’s diaries. Indeed it was reported at that time that she was the favourite of her Royal father and that she had occasionally acted as his amanuensis. But only two months after her death, she was followed by her father King William. From her only son, descends the present representative of the Sidney family, Sir Philip John Algernon (Sidney) 2nd Viscount (born 1945), and Sophia’s portrait is in pride of place at Penshurst Place.
Henry Edward FitzClarence (1797–1817)
Henry Edward FitzClarence, was born on 8 March 1797 at Richmond, Surrey, the third child and second son of William, Duke of Clarence and Mrs Jordan. His arrival in the world was noted in the 13 March 1797 edition of The Times:
‘Little Pickle was brought to bed on Tuesday last of a son, at the Duke of Clarence’s house on Richmond Hill. This is her third child by the Duke’
Little Pickle, of course, was Mrs Jordan’s nickname given to her by The Times from the part she played in The Spoiled Child. Clarence wanted this son to serve in the navy as he had done, and when the boy was just ten years old he approached his old friend Rear-Admiral Richard Keats and requested his help:
‘I am anxious to send Henry to sea and ultimately he shall go, but mothers must be consulted. Unfortunately I am afraid there is too much reason to believe that I have lost an unfortunate boy on board the Blenheim which naturally enough causes great uneasiness to Mrs Jordan and makes me cautious as to my method of proceeding relative to Henry ... The boy himself is delighted with the idea and talks of you and the Navy with rapture’.
At the tender age of twelve, his father’s wish was eventually granted when he purchased a commission in the Navy for him and young Henry became a volunteer on the ship Mars, Admiral Keats’s flagship. Despite her misgivings Mrs Jordan was pleased that her son was in the Admiral’s care for
‘the attention and kindness of Admiral Keats to all the boys is more like the affectionate care of a father than master’.
Henry’s first stint of duty was in the Baltic whence Admiral Keats had been sent to rescue 9,000 stranded Spanish troops in Denmark with their artillery and baggage. He followed this up, after just ten days leave, with another in the ill-fated Walcheren expedition lead by the Earl of Chatham, with Keats as second in command of the Fleet under Admiral Strachan. On his return in November 1809 he was granted six months leave before returning to serve on the Warspite in the Mediterranean. The next five months were spent blockading Toulon but despite his commanding officer’s high regard for him, the latter’s reputation for flogging his midshipmen prayed on the young boy’s mind and he asked to be transferred. ‘I wish he was with Keats,’ wrote his mother, ‘before anything unpleasant happens, for he declared in his letter to Sophy (his elder sister) that if they attempted to flog him he would run away, and you know how violent he is’.
Henry later transferred to the Army where he served in the 10th Hussars, the same regiment as his elder brother George, and there are a number of letters in the Royal Archives which their father wrote to them jointly. Henry appears frequently in his mother’s letters to other members of the family. He was constantly in néed of money and often wrote asking her to send some ‘Henry is in great want of money, and concludes his catalogue with ‘send plenty of money’. Poor fellow-he does not seem to know that it is rather an expensive article and not always to be found. However he shall (have) some’. In 1813 she duly noted that Henry was about to go abroad again ‘Henry goes to Lisbon with Lord Beresford, a very good thing for him’
His next military expedition was with the army which invaded Southern France. When his regiment returned, he, together with a number of his fellow officers, accused their colonel, George Quentin, of professional incapacity claiming that he ‘did not make necessary and proper arrangements to ensure success.’ When the Colonel was found guilty, Henry’s uncle, the Duke of York was furious that junior officers should accuse their superior officer and saw to it that all twenty-five officers were dismissed from their regiments including Henry, the latter being ordered to India. To add insult to injury the Prince Regent’s private secretary penned a letter to his new commanding officer ‘begging that the strictest discipline, not to say severity, should be exercised towards them in consequence of their share in the business of the 10th Hussars’. To his credit the commanding officer rejected such a proposal replying that he ‘had received the Colonel’s letter, and that he should have returned it with the contempt it deserved, but that he chose to retain it, that he might have it in his power to expose him, should such unfair and offensive conduct be repeated’.
Fortunately none of these proceedings affected the small annuity of £200 that Henry received from his uncle the Prince Regent. Sadly, however, young Henry died of a fever in 1817 aged just twenty and unmarried, and just one year after his mother. At the time of his death, he was an ADC to the Governor-General, the Marquess of Hastings, who wrote of his own feelings for the young man: ‘I have been pained by the death of Lieutenant Henry FitzClarence … He was a mild, amiable young man, earnest in seeking information, and in improving himself by study’.
Lady Mary Fox (née FitzClarence) (1798–1864)
The second daughter of Mrs. Jordan, by the Duke of Clarence, later King William IV, Mary was born on 19 December 1798 at Bushey House, Bushey Park, where her parents had set up home when her father was appointed Ranger of Bushey Park in January 1797. As with her siblings, she was granted by Royal Warrant in 1831 the precedence of a younger child of a Marquess and in 1818 all five sisters were granted a pension of £500. She was also granted a differenced version of the Royal Arms charged with a baton sinister azure charged with an anchor between two roses or.
Like her eldest brother, in 1824 she too married a bastard, General Charles Richard Fox, MP, Colonel of the 57th Foot, Receiver General of the Duchy of Lancaster, and a well known archaeologist, who died in 1873. He was the natural son of Henry Richard (Fox), third Baron Holland, who was an old friend of her father’s and who had married in 1797 the divorced wife of Sir Godfrey Webster, 4th Bt. Prior to this, Sir Godfrey had been awarded £6,000 in damages against Lord Holland, because of the son Charles that he had had by Sir Godfrey’s wife. It was reported that ‘Sir Godfrey Webster with difficulty, and after some time was bribed to divorce her by the surrender of her fortune’. The Third Baron was also a great-grandson of the 2nd Duke of Richmond, a grandson of King Charles II.
There are a few mentions of the Foxs in Queen Victoria’s diaries. Like her siblings, Mary and her husband dined at Windsor from time to time and on 16 February 1839 The Queen described her as ‘poor Lady Mary Fox’ and as being ‘very much affected but very kind; she is a very nice person’ and ‘her voice being like her sisters. Lord M (Melbourne) knows her the best of any and says she is the cleverest of them’ (RA-VIC/QVJ 1839 16 February)
On 23 June 1839 there are references to Mary having abused The Queen Dowager and Lady Holland too and being described as ‘a very eager person’. She died aged 66, some nine years before her husband and relatively little seems to have been recorded about her.
Lieutenant-General Lord Frederick FitzClarence, GCH (1799–1854)
Frederick FitzClarence was born 9 December 1799 at Bushey House, the third, but second surviving son of Mrs. Jordan (1761-1816), the well known comic actress, by her Royal lover the Duke of Clarence, later King William IV.
Like his elder brothers, he was destined for a career in the Army and first appears on the pages of history when he was drafted to serve in the Waterloo c
ampaign. The resumption of the war was obviously of some concern to his mother who wrote to her younger son Adolphus: ‘Dear Frederick has joined his regiment at Brussels in consequence of the renewal of this cruel war’. However, she néed not have worried as Frederick remained safe and his conduct was exemplary: