by Roger Powell
‘Frederick’s Col. Had written a very handsome letter to your father, relative to Frederick’s conduct on the march to Ramsgate of the Guards, who behaved very ill, got drunk and were near mutiny. Frederick stayed behind and by his zeal and activity prevented much disorder and confusion’.
After Napoleon’s defeat, young Frederick entered Paris with his regiment, only to discover that his mother had fled England to avoid her creditors. Concerned he discovered her whereabouts and wrote to her
‘Tell all about the Marchs. If you want money for them don’t ask me for it, but take my allowance for them; because, with a little care I could live on my father’s till their business is a little settled. Now do as I ask you mind you do; for they have always been so kind to us all; and if I can make any return, I should be a devil if I did not. So take my next quarter and, as you may not want to give them some, do that for my sake’.
Eventually Frederick rose to the rank of Lieutenant General. At one time he had commanded the forces of Bombay and was Colonel of the 36th Foot. Although he was appointed GCH (Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Hanoverian Guelphic Order), he bombarded his father with requests that he should be made a Hanoverian general as well. But Melbourne was not impressed by him, describing him as ‘very foolish’.
As with his siblings, he was granted by Royal Warrant in 1831 the precedence of a younger child of a Marquess and with a special remainder to the Earldom of Munster, failing the heirs male of his eldest brother. He was also granted a differenced version of the Royal Arms charged with a baton sinister azure charged with two anchors or. He and his siblings do appear to have had some contact with Queen Victoria, in that there is an entry in her diary dated 22 February 1838 recording the fact that he had dined with her. He married in 1821 Lady Augusta Boyle (who died on 28 July 1876), daughter of the 4th Earl of Glasgow and he died aged fifty-five on 30 October 1854, leaving a daughter who died unmarried.
Elizabeth, Countess of Erroll, (née FitzClarence) (1801–56)
The third daughter of Mrs. Jordan (1761–1816), the well known comic actress, by the Duke of Clarence, later King William IV, was Elizabeth FitzClarence, who was born on 17 January 1801 at Bushey House. As with her siblings, she was granted by Royal warrant in 1831 the precedence of a younger child of a Marquess, although her subsequent marriage gave her a higher precedence. 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.
Elizabeth married in 1820 William George (Hay), eighteenth Earl of Erroll, KT, GCH, Hereditary High Constable of Scotland, who later served as Lord of the Bedchamber to her uncle King George IV and Master of the Horse to the Queen Consort and Lord Steward of the Household. He was created Baron Kilmarnock and appointed KT and PC among many other honours. Like her siblings, Elizabeth features in Queen Victoria’s diaries when she dined or stayed at Windsor. For instance on 7 December 1838 the entry reads:
‘Saw Lady Erroll who had not yet seen me since the King’s death, and seemed much affected but conqured herself; she was very kind and kissed and pressed my hand and said she could not express all she felt; she is grown enormously large. At 10m to 8 we dined …I sat between Lord Albemarle and Lord Erroll and we talked literally of nothing but racing, hunting, horses, breeding horses etc, etc’ (RA-VIC/AVJ/1838 7 December).
On 4 January 1840 they were dining again when The Queen described her as ‘such a nice, natural person’.
Six years later in 1846, Lord Erroll died of diabetes leaving a son and two daughters, one of whom married Charles Edward Allen, the self styled Count d’Albanie, who claimed to be the legitimate grandson of Bonnie Prince Charlie, but was in fact an imposter, another was a bridesmaid to Queen Victoria. Elizabeth survived her husband for nine years, dying in 1856 and for some of this period she was living at one of the lodges in Richmond Park.
The present representative of this illustrious and ancient family is her great-great-great-great-grandson, Sir Merlin Sereld Victor Gilbert (Hay), 24th Earl and Hereditary High Constable of Scotland, (born 1948) who is also the grandson of the Lord Erroll of ‘White Mischief’ fame. Another descendant, through their daughter Agnes who married 5th Earl of Fife, is the leader of the Conservative Party, David Cameron.
Rear Admiral Lord Adolphus FitzClarence, GCH (1802–56)
The fourth son of Mrs. Jordan (1761–1816), the well known comic actress, by the Duke of Clarence, later King William IV, was Adolphus, who was born on 17 February 1802 at Bushey House and named after his uncle the Duke of Cambridge. In 1808, his mother describes him as ‘really the very finest child I ever saw and certainly the handsomest of all mine’ (GEO/Add/40/19a). Indeed, of all her children Adolphus was the one she loved the most, and surviving letters at Wemyss Castle testify to their closeness. The first, dated 1813, was written from Margate:
‘I trust and believe my dear and darling boy will not impute to neglect or want of affection my silence. I waited till I could see dear Henry to learn from him how and when I could best write to my dear affectionate Lolly [Adolphus]. All the children I saw and dined with at Lloyd’s on Friday last, except George, who is gone to Brighton to join his regiment, but he is to be on duty immediately at Hampton Court. The dear children are all well. Henry made me very happy by giving me hopes that the war with America will soon be over, in which case I shall soon see you.’
The following year, however, aged only twelve, Adolphus joined the Royal Navy and served on board the Impregnable, the Newcastle, the North American Station as a Midshipman, in the Tagus, and the Rochfort, Flagship of Sir Thomas Fremantle, and the Glasgow, all in the Mediterranean.
The fact that he saw soo much service in the Mediterranean gave him little practice in coastal navigation. To remedy the situation his then commanding officer Admiral Fremantle arranged that he be transferred to the sloop Aid under the watchful eye of Captain Smyth ‘a remarkably good astronomer, draughtsman and surveyor’; the sloop was to be employed off the Ionian Islands and the Adriatic. In the Admiral’s opinion
‘if these young men [his own son Charles included] are disposed to learn, they can never have a more favourable opportunity. Indeed it is on the score of navigation they are both deficient which is to be accounted for by their serving so much in the Mediterranean out of sight of land’.
His interest in Adolphus was amply rewarded and in a letter to his brother in October 1818, Fremantle wrote: ‘If you should see the Duke of Clarence you may mention that I am quite satisfied with his son(s) who are improving daily’.
The anxiety of Adolphus joining the Navy at such a tender age was compounded when Mrs Jordan received news that her eldest son had been wounded in action. ‘I have been quite ill, but thank God, all my anxiety about dear George has this moment been removed by a letter from the dear fellow wherein he says he is pronounced out of all danger’. Apparently the wound was received during the capture of Toulouse ‘ I lose not a moment in relieving your anxiety about dear George, who tho’ he has been severely wounded in the thigh is, thank God, in a fair way of being well’.
Adolphus’s first commission as Lieutenant was dated April 1821 following which he joined the Euryalus and then the Brisk sloop and Redwing on the North Sea Station before being promoted to the rank of Commander. In 1824 he achieved the rank of Captain and was given command of the Ariadne in the Mediterranean, the Challenger and the Pallas and from 1830 the Royal George and Victoria & Albert yachts. There are a number of references to Lord Adolphus in Queen Victoria’s diaries including an entry for 1 Spetember 1842 in which she says ‘how highly satisfied we both were with extreme attention and assiduity of Lord Adolphus and all the officers’. But another entry for 29 August 1838 records that Melbourne thought him ‘mad’.
He eventually rose to the rank of Rear Admiral of the White, being appointed in 1853, some twenty-nine years after first being promoted Captain. He had also been appointed Groom of the Robes and a Lord
of the Bedchamber to his father, King William IV, GCH, ADC to Queen Victoria and Ranger of Windsor Home Park. Like his siblings, he had, on his father’s accession to the Throne in 1831, been granted by Royal Warrant the precedence of a younger child of a Marquess and with a special remainder to the Earldom of Munster, failing the heirs male of his eldest brother. Like his siblings, he was also granted an annuity by his uncle King George IV and this was continued by both his father as well as by Queen Victoria. He was also granted a differenced version of the Royal Arms charged with a baton sinister azure charged with two anchors or.
Nevertheless money always remained a problem for him, especially as he was perhaps the least acquisitive of his siblings. Indeed Queen Victoria notes in her diary on 23 January 1838 ‘I told Lord Melbourne that Lord Adolphus FitzClarence on being told that I would continue to him and his brothers and sisters the same annual allowance they enjoyed from the late King, burst into tears and said that it was unexpected, for they did not dare to hope for anything’. However upon the suicide of his eldest brother in 1842, it fell to Adolphus to have to deliver his brother’s letter to the Queen asking that she might extend his pensions to his children, something she did not feel inclined to do, and supported in her decision by Melbourne and Sir Robert Peel. As a sop, however, she did offer to do what she could for them in their respective professions, although she clearly thought that it was remarkable of Lord Munster ‘going and premeditatingly shooting himself and then asking me to take care of his children’.
Yet sadly, when Adolphus died, unmarried, on 18 May 1856, his assets proved insufficient to pay his debts, funeral expenses and legacies. (RA-GEO/Add 39/668). Meanwhile, Queen Victoria’s diary entry for the following day (page 218) provides a suitable epitaph in which she says
‘Poor Ld Adolphus FitzClarence, of whose paralytic seizure we heard on the 17th, died yesterday evening. We are truly sorry as he was very good natured and kind hearted, but he positively killed himself by living too well. He was only 54, though he looked quite 10 or 12 years older’.
Lady Augusta Kennedy, later Hallyburton, (née FitzClarence) (1803–65)
The fourth daughter of Mrs. Jordan (1761–1816), the well known comic actress, by the Duke of Clarence, later King William IV, was Augusta FitzClarence, who was born on 17 November 1803 at Bushey House. 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.
Very little seems to be known about Augusta and there were no references to her in Quen Victoria’s Diaries. Augusta married twice, firstly in 1827 to the Hon. John Kennedy-Erskine, 2nd son of Archibald (Kennedy), KT, FRS, 1st Marquess of Ailsa and 12th Earl of Cassilis. Her husband, who had inherited his maternal grandfather’s estate of Dun in Forfarshire when he added the name and arms of Erskine of Dun, died four years later, leaving a son and a daughter, Wilhelmina (who was to marry in 1855 her first cousin the 2nd Earl of Munster). As chatelaine of the House of Dun in Angus, Augusta became a passionate botanist and néedlewoman and features in Great Houses of Scotland by Hugh Massingberd.
She married secondly on 24 August 1836 a professional sailor with service in the Home, South American and Mediterranean Stations, who saw action with the Toulon fleet in 1814. He was Captain, later Admiral, Lord John Frederick Gordon, who in 1843 changed his name to Hallyburton. He was the 3rd son of the 9th Marquess of Huntly and 5th Earl of Aboyne and he later served as an MP for Forfar in Angus. Three weeks before their marriage, he went on half pay, having paid off the sloop Pandora, and just a week before he was appointed GCH. Nevertheless his half pay did not prevent him being promoted successively Rear Admiral in 1857, Vice Admiral in 1863 and full Admiral in 1868. Augusta died in 1865 without any further children but he survived her for another twelve years thereafter.
The Rev Lord Augustus FitzClarence (1805–54)
The fifth and youngest son of Mrs. Jordan (1761–1816) and the Duke of Clarence, later King William IV, was Lord Augustus FitzClarence, who was born in London on 1 March 1805. He was educated firstly at Wimbledon and then went up to Braesnose College, Oxford where he matriculated in 1824, moving on to Trinity College, Cambridge two years later. There he was awarded an LLB in 1832 and an honorary LLD in 1835.
It was William IV’s intention ‘to make five sons of mine fight for their King and Country’. However fate decreed otherwise and in the event two sons served in the army, four in the navy and one the church. From the moment of his birth William was particularly anxious that Augustus should serve in the Navy, and he was just twelve years old when he joined the frigate Spartan as a volunteer first class on 13 February 1818. Within the year William was writing to Admiral Fremantle requesting that he take on Adolphus and Augustus as midshipmen:
‘Captain Green having assured me you are kind enough to keep the situation of rated Midshipman on board your Flagship for my son Adolphus who is now with Dundas in the Tagus and has already served four years of his time, I have only to thank you for this act of friendship. But I must request your attention to my other son Augustus who has just entered into our service … I am anxious that he should have the advantage of education under Captain Green and the Chaplain, and to participate in the various branches of foreign languages which will be pursued on board your Flagship’.
Augustus joined the Rochfort, Fremantle’s flagship, as a Midshipman on 29 October 1818 and his brother Adolphus followed early in 1819. Unfortunately Augustus’s naval career was cut short and he left the service in 1821. The reason he gave was that:
‘he had been trained as a sailor, the navy being the career that he preferred above all others, but that in consequence of the death of a brother he had been literally taken from on board ship and, in spite of the utmost reluctance on his part, compelled to go into the church … He had not been bred to the church and had the greatest disinclination to taking orders’
Another variation of this theme is found in Alumni Cantabrigienses which states:
[He also] had a great devotion for celebrated actresses, including Fanny Kemble (1763–1841), who ‘he had asked to write a sermon for him, which she indignantly declined to do. He made a successful and very generous parish priest’. If Fanny Kemble is to be believed, he also ‘had a charming voice that, my father said, came to him from his mother’ and he was ‘pleasant looking, though not handsome… ‘
As his half brother, William Courtenay had died 1807 aged nineteen, when Augustus was only two, the death of his brother to whom he must have been referring was Henry FitzClarence who died unmarried in 1817 aged twenty, when Augustus would have been only twelve, and a year before he himself joined the Navy. This was some four years before Augustus left the Navy and seven years before he went up to Oxford, so his reasoning did not ring true.
After his time at both Oxford and Cambridge, Augustus was indeed ordained a priest and The Clergy List records that he became Vicar of Maple Durham, Oxford in 1829 (aged only twenty-four). This parish (value £878 with a population of 481), was in the gift of Eton College, and there he remained for the next twenty-five years until his death.
Despite having been granted by Royal Warrant the precedence of a younger child of a Marquess upon his father’s accession to the Throne in 1831 as his siblings had been, and a differenced version of the Royal Arms charged with a baton sinister azure charged with two anchors or, he too was dissatisfied and lacking in humility, for he demanded promotion and was then apt to be insulted by what was offered to him, having indignantly rejected offers at Worcester Cathedral and the post of Canon of Windsor. However, he did accept the appointments as Chaplain to his father and thereafter to Queen Victoria from 1840–52.
Some four years before he eventually married, Macready, the actor, says in his Diaries that, in 1841, the Reverend Augustus made a declaration of love to Miss P. Horton, an actress
; that he was far more familiar with the stage than the pulpit – and that he made up for the paucity of his sermons by the eloquence of his ‘billets doux’ (part of which are cited in GEO/Add/40/255). He was married later in life, aged forty, on 2 January 1845 to Sarah Elizabeth Catherine (who died 1901), eldest daughter of Lord Henry Gordon, the fourth son of the 9th Marquess of Huntly, and he died nine years later on 14 June 1854, aged only forty-nine, leaving issue of two sons (neither of whom had any surviving male issue) and four daughters. Of the latter, only Dorothea, who married in 1863 Captain Thomas William Goff, DL, (1829–76) of Roscommon, left issue and living descendants.
Amelia, Viscountess Falkland, (née FitzClarence) (1807–58)
The fifth and youngest daughter and the tenth and youngest child of Mrs. Jordan (1761–1816), the well known comic actress, by the Duke of Clarence, later King William IV was Amelia, who was born 21 March 1807 at Bushey House. 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.
Amelia, who was given away by her father, married in 1830 at the Royal Pavilion, Brighton as his first wife Lucius Bentinck (Cary) 10th Viscount of Falkland, PC, GCH, head of an old family dating back to the fourteenth century. He had succeeded his father, who had been killed in a duel, and later served as a Lord of the Bedchamber to his father-in-law, as well as Governor of Bombay. He was also created Baron Hundson of Scutterskelfe in 1832.
There are a number of references to the Falklands in Queen Victoria’s diaries when staying or dining with her. Clearly the Queen had a soft spot for Amelia, whom she described as ‘such a nice unaffected person’. When dining with The Queen on 14 April 1838 at Windsor, Queen Victoria was concerned to find Amelia ‘very much overcome indeed at dinner, poor thing, not having been here since she left Windsor after the poor King’s funeral. She cried, I observed, but really behaved very well and unaffectedly and tried to conquer her feelings which must have been very painful and acute.’