Читать книгу The Remarkable Lushington Family - David Taylor - Страница 15
ОглавлениеOn Sunday, May 6, 1821, Stephen Lushington’s niece Louisa, just back from Malta with her father Sir Henry, called upon the Carr family at their London home to meet her future aunt.
We went today to call upon Miss Carr, (& her family) Uncle Stephen is going to be married to, a most horrible visit for her poor thing!, to come in and be stared at and criticised by all her future relations, however, she bore it very well, her countenance is very sweet, her features pretty, & her manners particularly pleasing, her complexion is bad; I see nothing particularly delightful in the rest of her family . . . One of Miss Carr’s sister squints very much, & I most unluckily am very apt to squint myself, when I am talking to anybody possessed of that accomplishment, which looks as if I was mocking them.1
Sarah and her mother returned the call the following day and Louisa wrote:
We congratulated Miss Carr upon her having borne our visit so well yesterday, but she says she was miserable, she thought she would never have taken courage to come in. She certainly is a very sensible girl, for she said was very glad I was Dr Lushington’s niece.2
Anna Barbauld received the news of Sarah’s engagement with a tinge of sadness at the prospect of her change of name. She wrote, “My dear Sarah Carr, so let me call you, once more, by that name which, both Christian and Sirname [sic], has long been so dear to me.”3 Sarah and Stephen accepted an invitation to visit the Edgeworth family in Ireland. Maria later wrote to Sarah expressing her thanks for the visit:
We all thank your dear father and mother for bringing Dr Lushington here, and making us acquainted with him who is to make your happiness. We could not rejoice with our whole hearts in your marriage as we do, if we only knew by hearsay that the happy man is fully deserving of the prize, and every way suited to you and beloved by your dear parents.4
Queen Caroline
Lushington’s growing reputation in areas of matrimonial law following the Byron affair led to his involvement in another cause celebre when he was appointed as one of the team of lawyers to represent Queen Caroline in the matter of her divorce from George IV.5 In 1821, a Bill of Pains and Penalties was introduced into the House of Lords to deprive the Queen of her title and to dissolve her marriage to the King. It has been called “one of the greatest political sensations of all time.”6
The marriage of Caroline of Brunswick to the Prince of Wales in 1795 had been a failure almost from the start and the couple parted after only one year. It was alleged that the Queen had committed adultery with one of her servants, a man named Bergami. Leading counsel for the Queen was Henry Brougham he asked his friend Lushington to act as her advisor in matters of civilian law. The flamboyant spendthrift George IV was not a popular monarch and there was a good deal of public support for the Queen who was considered a wronged woman. Lushington took full advantage of this. He complained of the serious and numerous insults and indignities that had been heaped on the Queen during the proceedings and was accused by his opponents of trying to stir up popular support for her. Lushington spoke on the Queen’s behalf in the House of Commons on several occasions. He supported a parliamentary motion to postpone the King’s coronation and, shortly afterwards, he introduced a motion to support the return to Queen of a valuable service of silver plate which her husband had given her.
Lushington eventually replaced Brougham as the Queen’s principal legal advisor and he remained close to her throughout the whole troublesome and very public affair (figure 5). A gossipy confidant of the Marquess of Buckingham wrote:
Lushington, I hear, now very much presides over the councils of her Majesty; in many respects he is well calculated to please her, for he is good-natured and obliging in his demeanour, rash in his advice, and a lover to excess of popular applause. He is everywhere with her now; airs with her, assists her in receiving addresses, &c.7
When plans were being made for the King’s coronation, Lushington made clear his belief that any attempt to keep the Queen from the event would be highly improper. Despite this the Queen was not invited to attend the event. Nevertheless, she set out in her carriage for Westminster on the day of the coronation but, on arrival at the Abbey, she was refused entrance.
Shortly after this event, the Queen was taken ill and died. Lushington, as one of her executors, was at her bedside at the moment of death. Unfortunately, for him and his fiancée, the Queen died the day before their wedding. Lushington wrote, “My situation was truly painful. You know I was to be married that very morning—Wednesday. I could not, for various reasons, postpone it; so, having taken 2 hours rest, I went to Hampstead was married, and immediately returned to town.”8
Immediately after the Queen’s death, Lushington wrote to the Prime Minister, Lord Liverpool, informing him of events and then went to secure her property and papers at Brandenburg House, her London home.9 This task occupied him until three o’clock the next morning.10 He then rushed back to Hampstead to marry Sarah.11 The events of that day were recorded by Louisa Lushington:
We got to Frognal, at a little before nine where we found all the party assembled, poor Uncle Stephen looked so tired, he had been at the Queen’s death-bed, and did not leave her house till past two in the morning, Miss Carr did not know for certain when she got up whether she was to be married to day or not; immediately after the ceremony (which I thought very, very awful) we returned to breakfast and Dr L—was obliged to go to town to meet L[or]d Liverpool at twelve o’clock; Mrs Lushington had particularly wished to go away from the church door, but everything happened contrary to her wishes, nevertheless she bore all with good humour & good sense, and tho’ she was very much agitated behaved extremely well. Dr L—returned at two o’clock, and then they set off to go into the country sixty miles off where they are afraid they have only time to stay one day. It poured torrents the whole day long and nothing could look more wintry, & gloomy than it did. I don’t think a wedding a very joyful thing.12
As soon as the wedding ceremony was over, Lushington returned to London to meet the Prime Minister who, much to his relief, told him that the government would defray the funeral expenses of.13 Lord Liverpool suggested to the King that the Queen might be buried at Windsor or at a private ceremony in Westminster Abbey.14 However, the Queen had expressed her desire to be buried among her ancestors in Brunswick, Germany, her birthplace. Unfortunately, such were the extent of Stephen’s responsibilities in the matter, he had no choice but that both he and his bride of one day would have to accompany the coffin on its journey. What should have been the couples’ honeymoon was instead spent traveling to Germany with the funeral cortege. This resulted in Sarah being named the “Mourning Bride.”15 Joanna Baillie wrote, “We have had a dismal wedding at Mrs Carr’s, which I trust will nevertheless prove a happy one. The bride is gone to attend the poor Queen’s funeral, with all her bridal bravery laid aside for sable weeds.”16
The lawyer and leader of Whig society, John Wishaw wrote to a friend:
You may have heard of Miss Carr’s marriage to Dr Lushington, the day after the Queen’s death. She is of the party of Brunswick, and is called the “Mourning Bride.” It is singular that Dr Lushington was never before on the Continent, though of an active turn, and a great lover of fine scenery. I have strongly advised them to return through Holland.17
Transporting the Queen’s coffin presented considerable problems. The government and the court were keen for this to be done as quickly, and with as little fuss, as possible. However, because public support favored the late Queen, efforts were made to delay the journey to give more time for demonstrations. The King wished that the coffin be transported privately on the River Thames and that any attempt to take it through any part of the country, especially the towns, should be avoided at all cost. However, it was realized that this might cause the city magistrates, who supported the late queen and who had control over that stretch of the river, might apprehend the coffin so it could be laid in state in the Guildhall—an event which the government wanted to avoid at all costs.
Eventually, a route was set through Hammersmith, Kensington and then to north of the City of London to Romford, Chelmsford and on to the port of Harwich (figure 6). Despite these arrangements, the procession was halted and diverted on several occasions as the crowds tried to divert it. There was fighting and rioting, and the military were enlisted to control the crowds. Joanna Baillie wrote to Lady Dacre, “We yesterday had sad accounts of riots in town to make the funeral procession go by Temple Bar, in which several lives were lost, from the Guards being obliged to fire on the crowd.”18 This particular incident took place at Cumberland Gate where two people were killed when an attempt was made to divert the procession along Oxford Street.
Upon arrival at Colchester, the coffin was placed in St Peter’s Church overnight. Here Lushington instructed a workman to screw on the coffin a silver plate with the inscription which the late Queen had requested: “Here lies Caroline of Brunswick, the injured Queen of England.”19 A local official ordered the removal of the inscription and a row broke out. Eventually, the plate was removed and Lushington and his co-executor, issued a public statement in protest.20
Eventually, the funeral party reached Harwich for the sea crossing and then on to Brunswick where the late Queen’s body was finally laid to rest in the cathedral vault. The whole exercise was extremely harrowing for the young bride, and immediately the newlyweds returned home,21 Stephen wrote to his father-in-law to assure him how well Sarah had coped on this difficult trip:
Sarah could not speak her own praises. She could not tell you that she has given pleasure & delight to all she has associated with in her wanderings; nor that she has been to me a never failing source of pride—comfort & happiness. . . . I have too the satisfaction of saying that she bore the bodily fatigues of our long journey with less inconvenience that my fears anticipated; I cannot say she did not at times suffer from exertion but I believe I may assert with truth that our residence at Frognal has wholly & completely restored her & that she is now perfectly well & stronger that she was before her marriage.22
Lushington then turned to the matter of the Queen’s will:
The Queen’s affairs will prove very troublesome from the doubtful nature of the demands upon the estate yet I fear not, for my coadjudicator is very keen in these matters & will keep me out of all scrapes. I would I had had nothing to do with them, but this is all in vain.23
It was not until the following January that Lushington was finally able to report to Lord Liverpool with a full account of the late Queen’s estate. He explained to the Prime Minister, “I was anxious to have taken this step at an earlier period, but much time was unavoidably occupied in obtaining a thorough knowledge of the concerns & collecting all the demands against the estate.”24 For all his work on the Queen’s behalf, Lushington was awarded the freedom of the City of London.
On Christmas Day 1821, Maria Edgeworth wrote to her aunt that she had just seen Sarah who “looks however as if she has gone through a great deal.”25 Shortly after this she wrote to Harriet Beaufort:
Mrs Lushington is now as agreeable as ever as we first thought Sarah Carr and has shewn since we have been here a degree of strength of mind and self command about duel in which her husband had nearly been doomed . . . Dr Lushington has been much misrepresented in the newspapers. He is an amiable private character and has many friends strongly attached to him. As to his politics I have nothing to do with them. I only hope and believe he will make his wife happy. On her journey home from Brunswick by the Rhine she took 90 sketches—beautiful.26
Lushington and his new wife eventually settled down to married life. At first they lived with the Carrs in Hampstead while they looked for a suitable house in London. However, Lushington, weighed down by the late Queen’s affairs, struggled to find time to search for a property and wrote to his father-in-law, “My time I am sorry to say is wholly occupied . . . We have still not yet obtained a house & I begin to think we shall not be able to procure a permanent residence this year.”27 At the start of the following year Stephen secured the lease of 2 Great George Street, Westminster which was conveniently placed for the Palace of Westminster.28
An early visitor to the new home, Maria Edgeworth, dutifully informed her mother that she had been to see “Mrs Lushington in her new house in which she has been but one day and is in all the horrors of settling.” Edgeworth was soon followed by Joanna Baillie who wrote:
Mrs Lushington has got into her new house in George St: Westminster where we saw her the other day full of courtesy & kindness, and everything in nice order about her. The Doctor & her occupied Mr Carr’s house here just after their return from Brunswick and were very pleasant Neighbours to us. He is full of ardour & spirit and sociability, and his conversation is very delightful.29
In addition to establishing a London residence, the Lushingtons took a lease on “Merry Hill House,” a well-situated country house in Bushey, Hertfordshire. They moved there in about 1829 after seeing it advertised in the Morning Post. 30 Here the couple spent their married life and raised their family. Joanna Baillie wrote:
we went with Mrs Baillie & spent the day at Merry Hill with the Lushingtons, for his two Brothers, Sir Henry & Mr Charles Lushington, with Miss L. the sister & Mrs. Chs. L: the Lady who has given an account of her over-land journey from India to the public; a very dear good account I am told, and I hope to read it soon. It was quite delightful to see the 3 Brothers so happy with one another, our friend Sarah was in good looks & spirits and all her children healthy & playing about. Merry Hill stands very pleasantly in a rich pretty country—but I need say nothing about that, as I believe you have seen it.31
Lady Byron became a regular visitor at “Merry Hill” as did Maria Edgeworth who reported to her mother that she had “lately dined with Mrs Lushington to meet Lady Byron-alone-result-I don’t like her-cold-and dull and flat-dog looking face.”32
“A Real Good Mother and Wife”
In the year that the Lushingtons moved to Great George Street, their first child, Edward Harbord Lushington was born and Maria Edgeworth wrote to Sarah:
The great pleasure of hearing of your safety, my dear Mrs Lushington, and of the birth of your boy, was much increased in the manner in which the good news was communicated to me in the most affectionate warm-hearted letter I ever read from your dear mother.33
Edward, named after his father’s friend Edward Harbord, third Lord Suffield, was followed by William Bryan, Hester, Frances, Alice, and Stephen. In 1832, Sarah gave birth to Vernon and Godfrey. The twins were followed by Laura and, finally, Edith Grace. The forthright Joanna Baillie commented to her friend Mary Montgomery, “His [Stephen’s] Children, take them all together, are not so handsome as might have been expected from such Parents, but Fanny whom you saw with Miss Lawrence, is I think the homeliest of the family.”34 Maria Edgeworth made a similar observation when she wrote, “Mrs Lushington is charming such a really good mother and wife. I wish her children were handsomer.”35
Lady Byron took a personal interest in the Lushington children. She created a trust fund, with Frances Carr as a trustee, that was strictly limited to providing “some educational advantages to your daughters.”36 She wrote to Sarah, “I am glad you don’t object of a Guardian for your Brats—she consents—and the less said about the matter the better.” She insisted that Sarah kept the matter a secret for the time being.37
Surviving correspondence of both Edgeworth and Baillie provides glimpses into the domestic lives of both the Carr and Lushington families. In January 1825 Baillie wrote, “Mrs Carr is going to carry us tomorrow to Newington, to see our kind friend Mrs Barbauld, who has a slight paralytic attack in one arm; and tho’ slight, must at the age of 80 be considered as a serious warning.”38 In June 1826 she wrote to Lady Bentham, “Dr & Mrs Lushington are in Hampstead for the summer and add to the happiness of all connected with them. He is just returned again for Parliament but will I fear next winter lead a busier life than his bodily strength will permit.”
The happiness of the Carr family was shattered in 1829 by the death of Thomas Carr. Joanna Baillie wrote to Sir Walter Scott’s daughter Anne:
This is a dreadful blow upon . . . the whole family and is lamented by everybody here who had the pleasure of being acquainted with them. As for my Sister & myself and our good Sister in law Mrs Baillie, we in him lost a pleasant & kind friend, who was one of the executors under my Brother’s will and one with whom we could consult & advise in every difficulty. He died after a short & painful illness, of some disease of the heart (for the body was examined) which, I understand, is a very rare one. Mrs Carr & the family are all as well as can be expected; such is our usual report, for we have not yet seen any of them, though I called frequently at the House.39
News of her father’s death was initially kept from Sarah as she was considered to be in a delicate state recovering from the birth of her first child.40
Following her husband’s death, Frances Carr and her family moved into central London, leaving some of her daughters to stay with the Baillies during the upheaval of the move. Joanna wrote to Margaret Hodson, “Mrs Carr has taken a lease of a very good house in New Street, Spring Gardens which is near the Lushingtons & very pleasantly situated. They will settle in Town about the middle of November.”41 She also wrote to Isabella Carr expressing her sadness at:
the immediate termination of a dear & long enjoyed neighbourship which I shall always recollect with gratitude & regret. I am thankful that your house in Frognal is to be inhabited by a family which we need not visit; to have crossed its threshold again & seen new faces there would have been very painful.42
Even at this time of deep personal loss, sadness and the resulting family upheaval, Frances Carr found time to think of the needs of former neighbors. Joanna continued her letter, “Your Gardener has been very attentive in bringing us many good things for which you must thank your dear Mother in our name.”43
On Christmas Day 1829, Baillie wrote to Anne Elliott:
I went with a friend last Saturday to see Mrs Carr & her Daughters in their new house in Spring Gardens which is very pleasantly situated, looking into St. James Park and not far from the Lushingtons. She looked very sad, yet I hope she will cheer up by & by with so many good & dutiful children to support her, who conform so pleasantly to the change in their establishment & prospects. Of this we had not long since a good opportunity of judging when they passed a week with us (I mean 3 of them) at the time they were employed in removing all their furniture from Frognal, ere they left that delightful house for ever.44
When Maria Edgeworth called in May 1831, she was told by Sarah that that her husband was determined to send their two boys to India “for he says every path and place is so full in England that it is impossible to get on without jostling or being jostled to death.”45 Later that year Maria wrote to Harriet Butler telling her how she had dined with Sir Humphry Davey at the Lushingtons.
Mrs Lushington is charming such a real good mother and wife. I wish her children were handsomer . . . Mrs Lushington told me that she has never given a dinner since that which we were at 8 years ago. She found it necessary for Dr Lushington to dine at 4 o clock and to get up at 5 or 6 and she gave up all dinner parties literally and all evening parties and only saw her friend in the morning and in short lives only for her husband family and friends.46
Lushington’s long working hours were not helped by his appointment, in 1828, as a Judge in the Consistory Court while continuing to sit in Parliament as Member for both Ilchester and Winchelsea. This situation led to one of his servants to remark, “Moy [sic] Master sits for two places.”47
NOTES
1. Journal of Louisa Lushington (1821–1822) Introdution by Linda Slothouber (Chawton House Press, 2017), p. 52.
2. Ibid., pp. 52–53.
3. Anna Letitia Barbauld to Sarah Carr, 19 January, 1821. McCarthy, Anna Letitia Barbauld. Voice of the Enlightenment, p. 391.
4. Maria Edgeworth to Sarah Carr, August 16, 1821. Letters of Maria Edgeworth and Anna Letitia Barbauld.
5. A full account of Stephen Lushington’s representation of the Queen is in Waddams, Law, Politics and the Church of England.
6. G.D.H. Cole, The Life of William Cobbett (Routledge, 1927), p. 247.
7. Joseph Phillimore to the Marquess of Buckingham, August 12, 1820. Memoirs of the Court of George IV (The Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, London, 1859).
8. Stephen Lushington to Henry Brougham, August 9, 1821. The Creevey Papers: A Selection from the Correspondence and Diaries of the Late Thomas Creevey, M.P. (CUP, 1903), Vol. II, p. 22.
9. Stephen Lushington’s letter to Lord Liverpool, written from Brandenburg House at 10.30 p.m. on August 7, 1821, is reproduced in A. Aspinall (ed.) The Letters of King George IV, 1812–1830, Vol. 2 (Cambridge University Press, 1938).
10. A full account of Stephen Lushington’s actions on the dead Queen’s behalf is in J. Nightingale, Memoirs of The Last Days of Her Late Most Gracious Majesty Caroline, Queen of Great Britain and Consort of King George the Fourth (J. Robins and Co., 1822).
11. The Morning Post, 10 August, 1821, reported “Married, on Wednesday, at Hampstead Church, Dr. Lushington, the distinguished Counsel of her late MAJESTY, to Miss CARR, daughter of THOMAS W. CARR, Esq. Solicitor to the Excise. Dr. Lushington, it is supposed, will proceed almost immediately to Brunswick, for the purposes relating to the removal of her MAJESTY’S remains to that place for internment.”
12. Journal of Louisa Lushington, p. 78.
13. The total cost of the funeral was £6,591.14.4. BL Add MS 46,149, fol.45b.
14. Lord Liverpool to George IV, August 7, 1821. Letters of King George IV, Vol. 2.
15. Seymour, The “Pope” of Holland House, p. 240.
16. Joanna Baillie to Lady Dacre, August 15, 1821. Further Letters of Joanna Baillie, ed. Thomas McLean (Fairleigh Dickinson University Press, 2010).
17. Seymour, The “Pope” of Holland House, p. 240.
18. Joanna Baillie to Lady Dacre, August 15, 1821. Further Letters of Joanna Baillie.
19. The silver coffin plate remains in the hands of a member of the Lushington family and, at the time of writing, it is displayed in the Royal Pavilion, Brighton.
20. A full report can be found in the Manchester Mercury, August 21, 1821 and other contemporary newspapers.
21. “It is said that Dr Lushington was never before on the Continent, though of an active turn, and a great lover of scenery.” John Wishaw, August 28, 1821, quoted in The “Pope” of Holland House.
22. Stephen Lushington to Thomas Carr (undated, but 1821). SHC 7854/1/4/2.
23. Ibid.
24. Stephen Lushington to Lord Liverpool, January 21, 1822. Letters of King George IV, Vol. 2.
25. Maria Edgeworth to Charlotte Sneyd, Christmas Day, 1821. Maria Edgeworth. Letters from England, 1813–1884.
26. Maria Edgeworth to Harriett Beaufort, January 5, 1822. Maria Edgeworth. Letters from England, 1813–1844.
27. Stephen Lushington to Thomas William Carr, n.d., SHC7854/1/4/11.
28. 2 Great George Street was an early Georgian house. It was demolished in 1910 to make way for the new building of the Institute of Civil Engineers. In 1835, Lushington and his family moved across the road to No. 29.
29. Joanna Baillie to Margaret Holford Hodson, January 28, 1822. Letters of Joanna Baillie, Vol. 2.
30. The Morning Post, August 7, 1829. “Bushey, Herts—To be Let, Unfurnished, with immediate possession, MERRY HILL HOUSE, in the parish of Bushey, two miles from Watford, thirteen miles from London. The house is in perfect repair, containing a good drawing room, dining room, and library, three principal, and five other convenient bed rooms; capital stabling, coach house and offices attached, with a well-cropped kitchen garden, greenhouse, shrubberies, and field, making altogether about five acres; also, a pew in the church. Apply (if by letter post paid) to Mr. Hurley, Upholsterer, &c, Conduit-street, Regent-street.”
31. Joanna Baillie to Sarah Bentham (n.d.). Letters of Joanna Baillie.
32. Maria Edgeworth to her mother, May 22, 1822. Maria Edgeworth. Letters from England, 1813–1844.
33. Maria Edgeworth to Sarah Lushington, August 2, 1822. Letters of Maria Edgeworth and Anna Letitia Barbauld.
34. Joanna Baillie to Mary Montgomery, January 4, 1844. Letters of Joanna Baillie, Vol. 1.
35. Maria Edgeworth to Harriet Butler, March 16, 1831. Maria Edgeworth. Letters from England 1813–1844.
36. Byron Lovelace, Bodleian Library 91, 62, 63.
37. Ibid.
38. Joanna Baillie to Margaret Holford Hodson, January 2, 1825. Letters of Joanna Baillie, Vol. 2.
39. Joanna Baillie to Margaret Holford Hodson, May 5, 1829. Letters of Joanna Baillie, Vol. 2.
40. Ibid.
41. Carr was buried in a vault at Hampstead parish church. An inscription reads, “To the memory of Thomas William Carr Esq. of Frognal in the Parish and Eshott Hugh near Felton and Hetton in the county of Northumberland FRS FGS etc. Barrister at Law Treasurer of the Honourable Society of Grays Inn for 25 years His Majesty’s Solicitor of Excise in the management of important changes effected in the excise revenue during the above period/He was uniformly distinguished by his talents and zeal for the public good in the administration of justice/which gained him the confidence and esteem of the various Ministers/of His Majesty’s Government/In private life he conciliated the respect and love of all classes/By the urbanity of his manners his extended information/& sound judgement/& by the exercise of every conjugal/paternal and social virtue/He died on 27 April 1829 in the 60th year of his age.”
42. Joanna Baillie to Isabella Carr, December 1829. Further Letters of Joanna Baillie.
43. Ibid.
44. Joanna Baillie to Anne Elliott, December 25, 1829. The Collected Letters of Joanna Baillie, Vol. 1.
45. Maria Edgeworth to Harriet Butler, May 6, 1831. Maria Edgeworth. Letters from England 1813–1844.
46. Ibid. Maria Edgeworth to Harriet Butler, March 16, 1831.
47. Ibid. Maria Edgeworth to Harriet Butler, May 6, 1831.
