Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-2brh9 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T00:45:49.389Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Decline of the Grenvillite Faction Under the First Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, 1817-1829

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  16 January 2014

James J. Sack
James J. Sack*
Affiliation:
University of Illinois, Chicago Circle
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

The Grenvillites were one of the more durable and long lasting of the political groups or factions which functioned within the Westminster scene during the first three decades of the nineteenth century. Yet several years before the Reform Bill of 1832 substantially reduced their borough strength in the House of Commons, the Grenvillites as a group had ceased playing even a peripherally important role in the political nation. The decline of this faction illustrates one of the problems implicit in a system which places emphasis upon a great peer or wealthy Commoner acting as paterfamilias of a political clique. It is all very well when there exists an individual of some talent or even a moderate degree of gravitas to lead the group, but what will follow when an internal shift within the faction throws up a total incompetent, who neither properly prunes nor tends his preserve, to run the corporate affairs? This article will examine how such an occurrence overtook the Grenvillites during the years after 1817.

Type
Research Article
Information
Journal of British Studies , Volume 15 , Issue 1 , Autumn 1975 , pp. 112 - 134
Copyright
Copyright © North American Conference of British Studies 1975

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

1. The Grenvillite peers in 1808 included: Auckland, Braybrooke, Bristol, Buckingham, Bulkeley, Carlisle, Carnarvon, Carrington, Carysfort, Cawdor, Essex, Fortescue, Glastonbury, Grenville, Hardwicke, Hereford, the Bishop of Lincoln, Minto, the Bishop of Oxford, the Bishop of St. Asaph, Somers, Spencer, and Stafford. The Commoners included: Sir John Anstruther, Sir George C. Berkeley, Scrope Bernard, Lord Ebrington, William Eden, William Elliot, Lord Euston, William Fremantle, Pascoe Grenfell, Thomas Grenville, William Howard, Thomas Knox, Lord Morpeth, Richard Neville, Sir John Newport, Sir George Nugent, William Shipley, Lord Temple, Sir Robert Williams, Sir Watkin Wynn, and Charles Wynn.

2. 1 Hansard 20: 149 (March 13, 1815)Google Scholar; 205 (March 15, 1815); 262-63 (March 20, 1815); 124 (March 10, 1815). 1 Hansard 21: 371 (May 23, 1815)Google Scholar; 447-48 (May 25, 1815).

3. Le Strange, Guy (ed. and trans.), Correspondence of Princess Lieven and Earl Grey, (London, 1890), II, 9Google Scholar, Grey to Princess Lieven, June 17, 1830.

4. Bagot, Josceline (ed.), George Canning and His Friends (London, 1909), II, 52Google Scholar, Lyttelton to Bagot, June 4, 1817.

5. BM, Albermarle to Holland, May 18, 1808, Holland House Papers, Add. MS 51, 539.

6. Henry E. Huntington Library, San Marino, California, Bernard to Buckingham, March 16, 1809, Stowe-Grenville Papers, Box 156 (collection hereafter referred to as HEH … STG); BM, Temple to Thomas Grenville, May 28, 1810, Thomas Grenville Papers, Add. MS 41, 854.

7. HEH, Temple's diary, Jan. 1811, STG, ST 96.

8. HEH, copy of the memorandum of the Marquis of Buckingham, Dec. 27, 1814, STG, Box 156; comments by Buckingham on the proceedings between himself and Sir John Francis Cradock, STG, ST 96.

9. HEH, Buckingham to Buckinghamshire, June 26, 28, July 2, 5, 1815, ibid.; Buckinghamshire to Buckingham, June 27, July 1, 1815, STG, Box 158.

10. HEH, Buckingham to Grenville, July 16, 1815, STG, Box 168. Buckinghamshire Record Office, Aylesbury (hereafter referred to as BRO), Buckingham to Fremantle, July 2, 1815, Fremantle Papers, 55; memorandum of a conversation between Fremantle and Grenville, July 17, 1815; Fremantle Papers, 55.

11. HEH, Fremantle to Buckingham, Feb. 8, 1817, STG, Box 164; BRO, Buckingham to Fremantle, Feb. 9, April 4, April 21, 1817, Fremantle Papers, 55.

12. Melville, Lewis (ed.), Huskisson Papers (London, 1931), p. 132Google Scholar, Liverpool to Huskisson, Jan. 8, 1822.

13. BRO, Buckingham to Fremantle, April 4, 1817, Fremantle Papers, 55.

14. BRO, Buckingham to Fremantle, April 21, 1817, ibid.

15. HEH, Grenville to Buckingham, May 4, 1817, STG, Box 176.

16. BM, memorandum of a conversation with the Marquis of Buckingham, Jan. 24, 1818, Liverpool Papers, Add. MS 38,367; HEH, Buckingham to Grenville, Jan. 26, 1818, STG, ST 97.

17. Grenville, Richard, Second Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, Memoirs of the Court of England during the Regency, 1811-1820: From Original Family Documents (London, 1856), II, 204–08Google Scholar, Grenville to Buckingham, Jan. 27, 1818; National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth (hereafter referred to as NLW), Grenville to Wynn, Jan. 28, 1818, Coedymaen Papers, V/316; BRO, Buckingham to Fremantle, Feb. 1818, Fremantle Papers, 55.

18. HEH, Buckingham to Wellesley, Aug. 1, 1819, STG, ST 97; Phipps, Edmund, Memoirs of the Political and Literary Life of Robert Plumer Ward, Esq. (London, 1850), II, 47Google Scholar.

19. NLW, Wynn to Grenville, April 24, May 30, 1817, Coedymaen Papers VIII; Morning Chronicle (London), June 4, 1817Google Scholar.

20. BM, Mackintosh's journal, July 28, 1817, Mackintosh Papers, Add. MS 52,442; Mackintosh to Lady Holland, Sept. 19, 1817, Holland House Papers, Add. MS 51,654.

21. BM, Tierney to Lady Holland, Aug. 26, 1818, Holland House Papers, Add. MS 51,585.

22. HEH, Fremantle to Buckingham, Feb. 11, 1817, STG, Box 164; BRO, Buckingham to Fremantle, Feb. 16, 1817, Fremantle Papers, 55.

23. HEH, Wynn to Buckingham, July 12, 1817, STG, Box 181; Grenville to Buckingham, July 4, 1817, STG, Box 176.

24. NLW, Buckingham to Wynn, Sept. 15, 1817, Coedymaen Papers, 20; HEH, Wynn to Buckingham, Oct. 26, 1817, STG, Box 181.

25. BM, Lord Grenville to Thomas Grenville, April 16, 1817, Thomas Grenville Papers, Add. MS 41,853.

26. NLW, Wynn to Grenville, Nov. 19, 1817, Coedymaen Papers, VIII/547.

27. Buckingham, and Chandos, , Memoirs of Regency, II, 211–13Google Scholar, Phillimore to Buckingham, Jan. 31, 1818; II, 238, Wynn to Buckingham, March, 1818.

28. NLW, Buckingham to Wynn, Feb. 1, April 5, 1818, Coedymaen Papers, 20.

29. Buckingham, and Chandos, , Memoirs of Regency, II, 257–60Google Scholar, Wellesley to Burroughs, May 8, 1818; BM, Yorke to Buckingham, Aug. 26, Sept. 27, 1818, memorandum of George Hassell, Sept. 25-26, 1818, Hardwicke Papers, Add. MS 45,046.

30. Grenville, Richard, Second Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, Memoirs of the Court of George IV: From Original Family Documents (London, 1859), I, 32–34Google Scholar, Grenville to Buckingham, June 11, 1820; NLW: Grenville to Wynn, June 13, 1820, Coedymaen Papers, V/335; Wynn to Phillimore, Dec. 30, 1820, Coedymaen Papers, 29. BRO, Buckingham to Fremantle, Jan. 14, 1821, Fremantle Papers, 46.

31. BRO, Buckingham to Fremantle, Dec. 24, 1820, Fremantle Papers, ibid.

32. HEH, Buckingham's private diary, Nov. 25, 1820, STG, ST 97.

33. H.M.C., Bathurst MSS, p. 491, Arbuthnot to Bathurst, December 19, 1820.

34. Buckingham, and Chandos, , Memoirs of George IV, I, 144Google Scholar, Wellington to Buckingham, March 27, 1821; I, 150, Wellington to Buckingham, April 2, 1821. HEH, Buckingham to Wellington, April 1, 25, 1821, STG, ST 97. Bamford, Francis and Wellesley, Gerald, Seventh Duke of Wellington (eds.), Journal of Mrs. Arbuthnot, 1820-1832 (London, 1950), I, 90Google Scholar.

35. NLW, Buckingham to Wynn, June 11, 1821, Coedymaen Papers, 21.

36. BM, Liverpool to the King, June 10, 1821 (copy), Liverpool Papers, Add. MS 38,289; the King to Liverpool, June 11, 1821, Liverpool Papers, Add. MS 38,190; Londonderry to Liverpool, n.d. circa June 11, 1821, Liverpool Papers, Add. MS 38,289.

37. BM, Liverpool to Arbuthnot, June 15, 1821, Liverpool Papers, ibid.; Sheepscar Library, Leeds (hereafter referred to as Leeds): Canning to Liverpool, Oct. 8, 1821 (copy), Canning Papers, 70; Liverpool to Canning, Nov. 7, 10, 1821, Canning Papers, 70.

38. Buckingham, and Chandos, , Memoirs of George IV, I, 172–75Google Scholar, Fremantle to Buckingham, July 4, 1821; BRO, Buckingham to Fremantle, Nov. 15, 23, 1821, Fremantle Papers, 46.

39. NLW, Wynn to Mrs. Wynn, n.d. circa Dec. 9, 1821, Coedymaen Papers, 12.

40. Within the Cabinet, Harrowby and Eldon were opposed to the Grenvillite union with the Government. H.M.C., Bathurst MSS, p. 525, Harrowby to Bathurst, Dec. 22, 1821; Twiss, Horace, Public and Private Life of Lord Chancellor Eldon, with Selections from His Correspondence (London, 1855), II, 446Google Scholar, Eldon to Lady F. J. Bankes, Jan. 14, 1822. For the views of Lord Granville that “everybody I meet … exclaim against the inordinate price paid for their junction …”, see Leeds, Granville to Canning, Feb. 7, 1822, Canning Papers, 65. Mrs. Arbuthnot thought that Buckingham's elevation was a prostitution of the peerage, Bamford, and Wellington, , Mrs. Arbuthnot, I, 130Google Scholar.

41. Wellesley, Arthur, Second Duke of Wellington (ed.), Despatches, Correspondence, and Memoranda of Field Marshal Arthur, Duke of Wellington, K.G. (London, 1867–1880), I, 210Google Scholar, Buckingham to Wellington, Dec. 19, 1821; Bamford, and Wellington, , Mrs. Arbuthnot, I, 132–33Google Scholar.

42. BRO, Buckingham to Fremantle, March 31, 1822, Fremantle Papers, 46; NLW, Buckingham to Wynn, June 2, 1822, Coedymaen Papers, 22; Bamford, and Wellington, , Mrs. Arbuthnot, I, 167Google Scholar; Aspinall, Arthur (ed.), Diary of Henry Hobhouse, 1820-1827 (London, 1946), pp. 94–95Google Scholar.

43. BRO, Buckingham to Fremantle, Sept. 16, 1822, Fremantle Papers, 46; NLW, Buckingham to Wynn, Oct. 1822, Coedymaen Papers, 22; Leeds, Canning to Liverpool, Sept. 28, 1822, Canning Papers, 70.

44. BM, Liverpool to the King, n.d. circa Oct., 1822 (draft), Liverpool Papers, Add. MS 38,411, fol. 83; Bamford, and Wellington, , Mrs. Arbuthnot, I, 194Google Scholar.

45. HEH, Buckingham's private diary, Jan. 18, 1823, STG, ST 95; Wynn to Buckingham, Jan. 20, 1823, STG., Box 182.

46. NLW, Buckingham to Wynn, April 4, 1823, Coedymaen Papers, 23; BRO, Buckingham to Fremantle, June 25, 1823, Fremantle Papers, 46.

47. NLW, Buckingham to Wynn, July 8, 1825, Coedymaen Papers, 25B; BRO, Buckingham to Fremantle, Sept. 20, 1825, Fremantle Papers, 46.

48. BM, Wynn to Liverpool, Aug. 7, 1825, Liverpool Papers, Add. MS 38,412.

49. NLW, Wynn to Mrs. Wynn, n.d. circa Oct. 1, 1825, Coedymaen Papers, 12; Wynn to Buckingham, Sept. 30, 1825 (copy), Coedymaen Papers, 34.

50. Leeds, Canning to Wynn, Oct. 2, 1825 (copy), Canning Papers, 99B.

51. NLW, Wynn to Grenville, Dec. 19, 1825, Coedymaen Papers, IX/706.

52. NLW, Buckingham to the King, Dec. 27, 1825 (copy), Coedymaen Papers, 34; Aspinall, Arthur (ed.), Letters of King George IV, 1812-1830 (!Cambridge, 1938), III, 132–33Google Scholar, Liverpool to the King, Dec. 28, 1825.

53. NLW, the King to Liverpool, March 9, 1826 (copy), Coedymaen Papers, 34.

54. BRO, Fremantle to Buckingham, Jan. 12, 1826 (copy), Fremantle Papers, 46; Buckingham to Fremantle, Feb. 5, April 5, 1826, Fremantle Papers, 46.

55. NLW, Fremantle to Wynn, Nov. 7, 1826, Coedymaen Papers, 18.

56. BRO, Buckingham to Fremantle, Dec. 28, 1826, Fremantle Papers, 46; BM, East to Yorke, Feb. 7, 27, 1827, Hardwicke Papers, Add. MS 45,038.

57. BRO, Liverpool to Buckingham, Feb. 10, 1827 (copy), Fremantle Papers, 46.

58. Aspinall, Arthur (ed.), Formation of Canning's Ministry, February to August 1827 [Royal Historical Society, Camden 3d series, Vol. LIX] (London, 1937), 10–11Google Scholar, Buckingham to Wellington, Feb. 21, 1827; 12, Wellington to Buckingham, Feb. 22, 1827.

59. Aspinall, , Canning's Ministry, p. 27Google Scholar, Buckingham to Bathurst, Feb. 26, 1827.

60. Wellington, , Despatches of Wellington, III, 611–12Google Scholar, Buckingham to Wellington, March 20, 1827; Aspinall, , Canning's Ministry, pp. 205–06Google Scholar, Tierney to Bagot, May 1, 1827.

61. HEH, Buckingham's private diary, April 11, 1827, STG, ST 98.

62. Leeds, Canning to Buckingham, April 11, 1827, Canning Papers, 143; Aspinall, , Canning's Ministry, pp. 71–72Google Scholar, Canning to Buckingham, April 13, 1827.

63. HEH, Buckingham's private diary, April 14, 1827, STG, ST 98; BRO, Fremantle to Thomas Fremantle, April 19, 1827, Fremantle Papers, 138.

64. BRO, memorandum of a conversation between Thomas Fremantle and Buckingham, May 22, 1827, Fremantle Papers, ibid.; HEH, Buckingham's private diary, May 15, 19, 1827, STG, ST 98.

65. HEH, Buckingham's private diary, June 17, 1827, STG, ibid.

66. Buckingham owed personal debts of nearly £100,000. Chandos had personal debts of £9,200 and claimed that his father owed him £58,000. HEH, East to the Duchess, March 15, 21, 1828, STG, Box 4.

67. HEH, Buckingham's private diary, Aug. 22, 1827, STG, ST 98; BRO, Buckingham to Fremantle, Aug. 23, 1827, Fremantle Papers, 46.

68. Wellington, , Despatches of Wellington, V, 440Google Scholar, Chandos to Wellington, Jan. 13, 1829; V, 453, Wellington to Williams, Jan. 18, 1829.

69. Grenville, Richard, Second Duke of Buckingham and Chandos (ed.), Private Diary of Richard, Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, K. G. (London, 1862), III, 68Google Scholar.

70. BRO, Fremantle to Thomas Fremantle, Jan. 2, 1829, Fremantle Papers, 139.

71. NLW, Bulkeley to Lewis, June 19, 1817, Harpton Court Papers, c/375; HEH, Bulkeley to Buckingham, July 13, 1817, STG, Box 156.

72. H.M.C., Dropmore MSS, X, 423–24Google Scholar, Thomas Grenville to Lord Grenville, April 15, 1817.

73. National Library of Ireland, Dublin (hereafter referred to as NLI), Buckingham to Plunket, May 16, June 10, 1818, Plunket Papers, 920.

74. HEH, Buckingham to Ebrington, May 22, 1817, STG, Box 168; Grenville to Buckingham, May 13, 1817, STG, Box 176.

75. BRO, Buckingham to Fremantle, March 4, 1818, Fremantle Papers, 55.

76. NLI, Buckingham to Plunket, June 10, 1818, Plunket Papers, 920.

77. Buckingham, and Chandos, , Memoirs of Regency, II, 254–55Google Scholar, Stanhope to Buckingham, n.d. circa April, 1818; HEH, Buckingham to Stanhope, April 14, 1818, STG, ST 97.

78. Hampshire Chronicle (Winchester), March 9, May 4, 1818Google Scholar; NLW, Buckingham to Wynn, n.d. circa March, 1818, Coedymaen Papers, 20; BRO, Buckingham to Fremantle, March 12, 1818, Fremantle Papers, 55.

79. HEH, Buckingham's private diary, Jan. 25, 1823, STG, ST 95. For a recent evaluation of the political career of Lord Nugent, see Davis, Richard W., Political Change and Continuity, 1760-1885: A Buckinghamshire Study (Newton Abbot, 1972)Google Scholar, chapters 3-8.

80. HEH, Nugent to Buckingham, April 25, 1817, STG, Box 8.

81. The membership of the third party seems to have remained relatively stable. I have been unable to ascertain how many individuals sat on the Grenvillite bench by 1819. A number of M.P.'s appear to have flirted with them without actually sitting on the bench. These included: William Dickinson, Lord Blandford, Lord Charles Spencer Churchill, and Sir Hew Dalrymple Hamilton. Buckingham, and Chandos, , Memoirs of Regency, II, 323Google Scholar, Wynn to Buckingham, n.d.; NLW, Wynn to Phillimore, April 10, 1820, Coedymaen Papers, 46.

82. Buckingham, and Chandos, , Memoirs of Regency, II, 300–06Google Scholar, Fremantle to Buckingham, Feb. 9, 12, 1819; BRO, Buckingham to Fremantle, Feb. 10, 1819, Fremantle Papers, 46.

83. BRO, Buckingham to Fremantle, June 12, 1821, Fremantle Papers, ibid.

84. NLW, Wynn to Phillimore, Dec. 21, 1820, Coedymaen Papers, 29.

85. BRO, Buckingham to Fremantle, March 12, 1822, Fremantle Papers, 46; NLW, Buckingham to Wynn, Feb. 11, 1823, Coedymaen Papers, 23.

86. BRO, Buckingham to Fremantle, March 27, 1823, Fremantle Papers, 51.

87. NLW, Charles Wynn to Henry Wynn, May 18, 1846, Henry Wynn Papers, 12/2800D. For a discussion of the career of the second Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, see two articles by David Spring: “The Fall of the Grenvilles, 1844-1846,” Huntington Library Quarterly, XIX, No. 2 (1956), 165–90Google Scholar; “Lord Chandos and the Farmers, 1818-1846,” ibid., XXXIII, No. 3 (1970), 257-81.

88. The family relationships among the Stowe Grenvilles after the first Marquis of Buckingham's death in 1813 were troubled and it was against such a backdrop that the family tragedy, culminating in the Stowe auction of 1848, must be viewed. When Buckingham returned from Italy in 1829, the Duchess insisted on separate bedrooms. HEH, Buckingham to the Duchess, May 4, 1832, STG, Box 11. The second Duke of Buckingham and Chandos and his wife were divorced only in 1850, but their marital problems had been in evidence thirty years before. See, for example, the thirty-seven letters from the then Lord Temple to his wife in 1821. HEH, STG, Box 325.

89. HEH, Duchess to Grace, April 3, 1829, STG, Box 6; Buckingham's private diary, April 12-13, 1823, STG, ST 95.

90. BRO, Fremantle to Thomas Fremantle, April 19, 1827, Fremantle Papers, 138.

91. NLW, Wynn to Mrs. Wynn, Nov. 22, 1825, Coedymaen Papers, 12.

92. NLW, Buckingham to Wynn, Nov. 12, 1826, Coedymaen Papers, 27; Wynn to Henry Wynn, July 16, 1830, Charles Wynn Papers, 7/4817D; Wynn to Henry Wynn, Jan. 20, 1839, Henry Wynn Papers, 12/2800D.

93. HEH, Chandos to Buckingham, April 21, 1826, STG, Box 330.

94. BRO, Liverpool to Fremantle, May 1, 1826, Fremantle Papers, 48; Fremantle to Buckingham, May 27, 1826, Fremantle Papers, 46, HEH, Chandos to Buckingham, May 24, 1826, STG, Box 330.

95. HEH, Chandos to Buckingham, May 5, 1826, STG, Box 330.

96. BRO, Thomas Fremantle to Fremantle, April 26, 1827, Fremantle Papers, 49.

97. HEH, Chandos to Buckingham, May 6, 8, 1826, STG, Box 330.

98. BRO, Thomas Fremantle to Fremantle, April 26, 1827, Fremantle Papers, 49; HEH, Buckingham's private diary, June 11, 1827, STG, ST 98. For an account of Chandos's anti-Catholic activities in Bucks., see Davis, , Political Change and Continuity, pp. 73–75Google Scholar.

99. HEH, Buckingham's private diary, May 21, 22, 23, 1827, STG, ST 98.

100. Standard (London), Sept. 22, 27, 1828Google Scholar; Buckinghamshire Chronicle (Aylesbury), Oct. 25, 1828Google Scholar.

101. BRO, Fremantle to Thomas Fremantle, Nov. 23, 30, 1828, Fremantle Papers, 139.

102. HEH, Nugent to the Duchess, Feb. 21, 1829, STG, Box 159.

103. Davis, R. W., “Buckingham, 1832-1846: A Study of a ‘Pocket Borough,’” Huntington Library Quarterly, XXXIV, No. 2 (1971), 180Google Scholar.