BEAUCLERK, Charles (1670-1726)

The eldest son of Charles II and his mistress, Eleanor (Nell) Gwyn, Charles Beauclerk and his half-brother, Charles Lennox, duke of Richmond, were both reckoned by John Evelyn to be ‘very pretty boys’ and to be possessed of ‘more wit than the rest’ of the king’s offspring. Evelyn Diary, iv. 391-2. A later assessment reckoned Beauclerk ‘every way de bon naturel, well-bred, does not love business.’ Macky Mems. 40. An apocryphal, but probably not inaccurate, story told how Beauclerk acquired his surname and initial peerage title of earl of Burford as a result of his mother summoning her ‘little bastard’ while in the king’s hearing. When Charles took exception to her language, she explained that he had given the youngster no other name by which she could call him. The omission was then swiftly rectified. Ellis Corresp. i. 209n. Richmond’s appointment as a knight of the garter in the spring of 1681 was said to have provoked Nell Gwyn’s wrath that her own son had been overlooked, but by the opening of 1682 it was reported that the king intended ‘all favour that the law can afford’ to his son. Add. 75376, f. 59; HMC Ormond, n.s. vi. 299-300. A scheme proposed by Prince Rupert, duke of Cumberland, shortly before his death that Burford marry his illegitimate daughter, Ruperta, and have his garter was unsuccessful. Verney ms mic. M636/37, newsletter, 30 Nov. 1682. In 1684, shortly after the death of Henry Jermyn, earl of St Albans, Burford was promoted to the dukedom of St Albans. In May it was speculated that the king would marry him to the daughter of Sir John Cutler^‡, whose fortune was rumoured to be £100,000. HMC Portland, iii. 379. Negotiations for the match had been in train since the winter of 1677, but this marriage also failed to transpire. Add. 18730, f. 32. Early the following year Burford was granted the reversion of the office of master of the hawks, in spite of the claims of Charles Dormer, 2nd earl of Carnarvon, that the place belonged to him as one of his family’s perquisites. NLW, Powis Castle Deeds, 8988.

Plans had been afoot in the winter of 1684 for St Albans to travel to France to complete his education, but it was not until after the accession of his uncle that he was able to make the journey, under the tutelage of a Huguenot, de Gachon. Beinecke Lib. OSB mss fb. 83, p. 146; HMC Downshire, i. 55. He remained there until December 1686. Morrice, Entring Bk. iii. 327; Ellis Corresp. i. 209. In the spring of 1687 his mother came under considerable pressure from the king to dismiss de Gachon and replace him with a Catholic. The king also insisted on the boy’s conversion. Morrice, Entring Bk. iv. 1. The incident was said to have caused Gwyn such disquiet that she fell into an apoplexy from which it was thought unlikely she would survive. Longleat, Bath mss Thynne pprs. 42, f. 147; Verney ms mic. M636/41, J. to Sir R. Verney, 24 Mar. 1687. With Gwyn apparently on the point of death, it was reported that St Albans was to quit England for Hungary to participate in the war against the Turks, where it was thought he would oblige his uncle by converting to Rome. Ellis Corresp. i. 264. His mother’s death in November was said to have been the result of her ‘inexpressible grief’ at the enforced dismissal of de Gachon and the appointment of a Catholic named Wyvill as her son’s tutor. Morrice, Entring Bk. iv. 176. St Albans was the principal beneficiary of her estate which was variously valued at £4,000 per annum, £30,000 or £100,000. Ibid.; TNA, PROB 1/48; Longleat, Bath mss Thynne pprs. 42, ff. 244-5; HMC Downshire, i. 278-9; Beinecke Lib. OSB mss 1, box 2, folder 73, O. Wynne to Poley, 18 Nov. 1687. The inheritance of Nell Gwyn’s former home of Burford House in Windsor provided St Albans with an interest in the corporation for which several of his sons would later sit as Members of the Commons, although it was his half-brother, George Fitzroy, duke of Northumberland, who exercised the most obvious interest in the town as constable and high steward from 1701 until his death. HP Commons 1690-1715, ii. 17; Bond, 103.

St Albans benefited from the king’s decision to purge his younger daughter’s household at the close of 1687 when he was appointed colonel of Princess Anne’s regiment of horse in succession to Robert Leke, 3rd earl of Scarsdale. Verney ms mic. M636/42, newsletter, 6 Dec. 1687; Add. 34510, f. 65. The following year he travelled to the continent once more, where he was reported (inaccurately) to have converted to catholicism. Longleat, Bath mss Thynne pprs. 43, f. 37. That summer (1688) he set out for Hungary and was present at the capture of Belgrade, serving with the Imperial army. Beinecke Lib. OSB mss 1, box 2, folder 79. In his absence his regiment, under the command of Thomas Langston, was one of the first to desert to William of Orange. CSP Dom. 1686-7, p. 149; HMC Dartmouth, i. 204, 210; HMC Hastings, ii. 190-1; Bodl. Carte 130, f. 303; Cheshire ALS, Cholmondeley mss, DCH/K/3/8.

St Albans seems at first to have remained outwardly loyal to his uncle, and in January 1689 it was noted that he had waited on the exiled king at Paris. Beinecke Lib. OSB mss fb. 210, ff. 331-2. By the summer of that year he had returned to England when he approached Charles Talbot, earl (later duke) of Shrewsbury, for his assistance on behalf of one of his gentlemen of horse. CSP Dom. 1689-90, p. 158. Marked underage at calls of the House on 31 Mar. 1690 and 2 Nov. 1691 (on the last occasion inaccurately), St Albans finally took his seat in the House on 11 Nov 1691, introduced between his half-brother, Northumberland, and James Butler, 2nd duke of Ormond. HMC Lords, iii. 288. He was thereafter present on 56 per cent of all sitting days, and on 23 Feb. 1692 he subscribed two protests against the poll bill. He resumed his seat in the ensuing session on 4 Nov. 1692 after which he was present on almost 58 per cent of all sitting days during which he was named to two committees. Absent for a few days towards the close of the month, on 28 Nov. he registered his proxy with Northumberland, which was vacated by his return to the House on 6 December. Although St Albans voted in favour of committing the place bill on 31 Dec., on 3 Jan. 1693 he appears to have changed his mind and voted against the measure. On 4 Feb. he voted with the majority in finding Charles Mohun, 4th Baron Mohun, not guilty of murder.

St Albans travelled to the continent again in May to take part in the summer campaigning season. On 29 July he was present at the battle of Landen, where it was reported inaccurately that he had been killed. On his return, in recognition of his military services, he was appointed to the captaincy of the gentlemen pensioners, vacant by the death of John Lovelace, 3rd Baron Lovelace. St Albans’ efforts to reform the pensioners met with spirited resistance, and the following year he was ordered to leave things as they had been under the former captain. Luttrell, Brief Relation, iii. 99, 150, 260. St Albans resumed his seat at the opening of the new session on 7 Nov. 1693, after which he was present on 38 per cent of all sitting days. On 14 Nov. he introduced his half-brother, Richmond. The same month he appointed Henry Barnsley to act as receiver for his pension on the Irish establishment. Kent HLC (CKS), U269/C120/6. An account of the debates surrounding the passage of the triennial bill suggested that St Albans was one of a clutch of peers to lose interest in the affair early on as they were all said to have ‘gone off’ with the fate of the bill still in the balance. HMC Hastings, ii. 232-3.

Ten years after the first rumours had circulated of possible marriage alliances for St Albans, on 17 Apr. 1694 he was married to Lady Diana de Vere, daughter of the impecunious 20th earl of Oxford. Castle Howard, J8/37/3; Wood, Life and Times, iii. 450; TNA, SP 105/60, f. 138. While the alliance promised little in the way of financial reward, it is easy to see how Oxford and St Albans may have been sympathetic to one another, both being committed soldiers. As if to confirm this, a little over two months after his marriage, St Albans again joined the campaign in Flanders, this time in company with James Hamilton, styled earl of Arran [S] (later 4th duke of Hamilton [S] and duke of Brandon). Luttrell, Brief Relation, iii. 347; Bodl. Carte 79, f. 582. Despite his apparently substantial inheritance from his mother, St Albans’ lack of landed estate and reliance on the income from offices meant that he was rarely able to support his status as a duke adequately. Habakkuk, Marriage, Debt and the Estates System, 185. In response to this, later that summer, the king and queen granted him an annuity of £2,000 ‘for the better support of his dignity’. CSP Dom. 1695, p. 274. Almost drowned on his return to England in October, he returned to the House for the new session on 12 Nov. 1694 and the same day introduced John Sheffield, 3rd earl of Mulgrave, in his new dignity as marquess of Normanby. HMC Portland, iii. 558; Bodl. Carte 79, ff. 645, 647. St Albans was excused at a call of the House on 26 Nov. and resumed his seat the following day, after which he was present on approximately 43 per cent of all sitting days. Absent from the first few days of January 1695, on 12 Jan. St Albans registered his proxy with Algernon Capell, 2nd earl of Essex, which was vacated by his return to the House on 24 January.

St Albans again served abroad during the summer, but he returned to the House at the opening of the new Parliament on 22 Nov., after which he was present on just under half of all sitting days. On 11 Apr. 1696 he received his father-in-law’s proxy, which was vacated by the close of the session. St Albans took his seat in the second session on 2 Nov., after which he was present for 55 per cent of all sitting days during which he was named to two committees. On 30 Nov. he was named one of the managers of a conference with the Commons concerning the waiving and resuming of privilege, and on 23 Dec. he voted in favour of attainting Sir John Fenwick^‡. St Albans registered his proxy with Sidney Godolphin, Baron (later earl of) Godolphin, on 19 Feb. 1697 which was vacated by his resumption of his seat on 2 March. On 10 Apr. he was nominated a manager of the conference for the bill to prevent the buying and selling of offices.

In March St Albans succeeded to the offices of master of the hawks and registrar of the court of chancery, the reversion of which he had held since 1675, thereby adding a further £1,500 to his annual income. The following month he was appointed an extra gentleman of the bedchamber. On campaign again in the summer, on his return the king demonstrated his attachment to the duke by presenting him with a gift of spotted coach horses. Luttrell, Brief Relation, iv. 302. St Albans took his seat in the new session on 3 Dec., but the same month he was selected to undertake an embassy to Paris to compliment the French king on the recent marriage of the duke of Burgundy with the princess of Piedmont. CSP Dom. 1697, p. 525. According to one report he was ‘kindly received’ but was not granted the same honour as his half-brother, James Scott, duke of Monmouth, had been on a prior occasion. Beinecke Lib. OSB mss 163, box 1, Biscoe to Maunsell, 29 Jan. 1698. More suited to the life of a soldier than that of a diplomat, St Albans’ behaviour in France provoked complaints from his hosts, and he departed under a cloud at the close of January 1698 having failed to give the customary presents to the introducteurs and leaving his debts unpaid. He was also compelled to borrow £150 from Charles Paston^‡, styled Lord Paston, to avoid having his baggage confiscated, which he then neglected to repay. CSP Dom. 1698, p. 138.

Having resumed his seat in the House on 9 Feb. 1698, St Albans was then absent for the majority of the following month, and on 4 Mar. he registered his proxy with Arnold Joost van Keppel, earl of Albemarle. When Albemarle also absented himself on 7 Mar., both his and St Albans’ proxies were registered on 10 Mar. with Edward Villiers, earl of Jersey, brother-in-law of St Albans’ old comrade-in-arms, Lord George Hamilton, later earl of Orkney [S]. St Albans’ proxy was then vacated when he resumed his seat at the close of the month. Travelling to London from Richmond on 21 June, St Albans’ military bearing served him well when he narrowly avoided the fate of his brother, Northumberland, and a number of others who were robbed by highwaymen on Hounslow Heath. According to the report the assailants thought St Albans ‘too strong to attempt him’. Verney ms mic. M636/50, Sir J. Verney to W. Coleman, 21 June, 1698; Luttrell, iv. 394. Present in the House the following day, on 30 June he received Jersey’s proxy which was vacated by the close of the session.

St Albans took his seat in the new Parliament on 6 Dec. 1698, but he attended just 28 per cent of all sitting days in the first session and was named to no committees. The following September he joined a number of predominantly Tory peers at a dinner hosted by Henry d’Auverquerque*, earl of Grantham. Bodl. Carte 228, f. 325. He then resumed his seat in the second session on 16 Nov. 1699, and on 27 Nov. he appeared with Ormond, Richmond and Oxford in king’s bench to stand bail for Captain Kirke (probably his wife’s cousin, Percy Kirke, the future Lieutenant General Kirke), who stood indicted for the killing of Popham Seymour Conway in a duel. Despite the presence of three dukes and an earl, the judges refused Kirke bail. Luttrell, Brief Relation, iv. 587. Present for approximately a third of all sitting days in the session, St Albans again appears to have been a somewhat inactive Member, preferring to divide his time between attendance in the House and hunting parties in company with Richmond and Hugh Cholmondeley, Viscount Cholmondeley [I], (also Baron and later earl of Chomondeley in the English peerage). Cheshire ALS, Cholmondeley mss DCH/K/3/14.

St Albans took a controversial part in the elections for Winchester in January 1701, where he had been elected a freeman presumably on the interest of the high steward, Charles Powlett, 2nd duke of Bolton. Appearing with Richmond and Bolton on behalf of Lord William Powlett^‡ (Bolton’s brother) and George Rodney Brydges^‡, the three dukes’ participation in the election became the subject of a petition in the Commons from the defeated candidate, Frederick Tylney^‡. The latter protested that their interference was contrary to a Commons’ order barring peers from voting in elections (all three had exercised their rights as freemen and voted at the poll for Powlett and Brydges). HP Commons 1690-1715, ii. 254-5. Although Sir Richard Cocks^‡ reported that, ‘there was never a fairer cause’ than that of Tylney, Powlett and Brydges, the elections were permitted to stand. Cocks Diary, 153-4.

St Albans took his seat in the new Parliament on 21 Feb. after which he was present on approximately one third of all sitting days; but, having played such a prominent part in the elections he was again inactive during the session and was named to just one committee. On 17 June he voted in favour of acquitting John Somers, Baron Somers.

St Albans again formed one of a hunting trio with Richmond and Cholmondeley in the early autumn of 1701 before returning to the House for the second Parliament of that year on 30 December. Cheshire ALS, Cholmondeley mss DCH/L/50/2. He was thereafter present for 39 per cent of all sitting days during which he was named to eight committees. Missing at a call on 5 Jan. 1702, on 5 Mar. the House ordered the seizure of Benjamin Hardy and George Simpson for arresting one of St Albans’ servants contrary to his privilege.

St Albans took his seat in the new Parliament following the king’s death on 21 Oct. 1702. Absent for the following three weeks, on 4 Nov. he registered his proxy with Essex, which was vacated by his return on 12 November. He was then present for approximately a third of all sitting days and was named to six committees. On 9 Dec. he signed the resolution against tacking foreign material to supply bills, and in January 1703 he was estimated an opponent of the occasional conformity bill. In March St Albans again lost out to his brother, Northumberland, when he was disappointed in his efforts to succeed to the colonelcy of his late father-in-law’s cavalry regiment. Add. 70075, newsletter, 16 Mar. 1703. In advance of the new session Charles Spencer, 3rd earl of Sunderland, listed St Albans as one of those peers thought likely to absent themselves from discussions of the occasional conformity bill. Sunderland then listed St Albans as a doubtful opponent of the measure in a second forecast drawn up late in November or early December. Having taken his seat in the new session on 6 Dec. (after which he was present on just 26 per cent of all sitting days), St Albans voted against passing the occasional conformity bill on 14 December. Three days later he was present at a dinner hosted by Bolton at which were a number of other opponents of the bill, including Richmond, Charles Montagu, Baron (later earl of) Halifax, and Charles Bennet, 2nd Baron Ossulston (later earl of Tankerville). TNA, C104/116, pt. 1.

St Albans was absent from the House on 4 Jan. 1704 and, with a number of other peers, was sent a letter requiring his presence on 12 January. He duly resumed his seat on that day and in February was one of those persons granted relief in the resumptions bill. Add. 70075, newsletter, 5 Feb. 1704. Absent from the opening of the new session St Albans was excused at a call of the House on 23 November. He took his seat on 10 Jan. 1705 but attended for just three days before quitting the session. On 27 Jan. he again registered his proxy with Godolphin, which was vacated by the close: a rare instance at this juncture of a Whig leaving his proxy in the hands of someone from another party. Brit. Pols, 46. In a list drawn up before the spring of 1705 St Albans was noted as a supporter of the Hanoverian succession. He took his seat in the new Parliament on 25 Oct. but was again infrequent in his attendance. Excused at a call on 12 Nov., in all he attended on just 18 days of the 96-day session. He returned to the House for the second session on 3 Dec. 1706 after which he was present on 22 per cent of all sitting days. In February 1707 he was present at a political dinner attended by Bolton, Ossulston, Wharton and a number of other Whig peers. TNA, C104/116, pt. 1. On 14 Mar. he registered his proxy with Cholmondeley (who had also been present at the February dinner), which was vacated by the close.

St Albans attended just one day of the new Parliament of Great Britain on 30 Oct. 1707. In November he was disappointed of his expectation of a substantial legacy from John Fitzgerald, 18th earl of Kildare [I], who was said to have promised to make St Albans his heir. HMC Rutland, ii. 187. Kildare devised the majority of his estates instead to St Albans’ half-brother, Richmond. TNA, PROB 11/501. Marked a Whig in a list of party classifications on c. May 1708, St Albans returned to the House for the new Parliament on 16 Dec. after which he was present for 21 per cent of all sitting days. On 21 Jan. 1709 he voted in favour of permitting Scots peers with British titles to vote in the elections for Scots representative peers and on 23 Feb. was named to the committee investigating affairs concerning his late would-be benefactor, Kildare.

St Albans’ attendance of the House improved slightly during the second session of November 1709, of which he attended almost 30 per cent of all sitting days, and on 20 Mar. 1710 he found Henry Sacheverell guilty of high crimes and misdemeanours. Marked doubtful by Robert Harley, later earl of Oxford, in advance of the new Parliament, St Albans took his seat on 25 Nov. 1710 but was thereafter present on just 12 days of the 113-day session. On 9 Feb. 1711 he was again present at one of the dinners hosted by Ossulston, and on 29 Apr. he registered his proxy with Richmond, which was vacated by the close. TNA, C104/113, pt. 2.

Financial concerns continued to plague St Albans. During the summer his duchess took it upon herself to petition Harley (now earl of Oxford) for his assistance in ensuring the payment of arrears due to St Albans for his office of master of the hawks and of a grant made to him of the customs on logwood. Add. 70261, Duchess of St Albans to Oxford, 1 June 1711. St Albans’ dependence on Oxford perhaps induced the treasurer, in December, to note the duke as a possible supporter and on 2 Dec. as one of those peers to be canvassed on the question of No Peace without Spain. St Albans was also one of those interviewed by Queen Anne in advance of the session in the hopes of securing his support for the government’s peace policy, but in spite of such attentions St Albans’ attendance remained relatively infrequent following his resumption of his seat on 7 Dec.: he was present on less than a fifth of all sitting days. E. Gregg, Queen Anne, 344. On 8 Dec. he was marked as an opponent of the court in an assessment of voting intentions concerning the presentation of the address containing the No Peace without Spain motion, and on 10 Dec. he was noted as one of those office holders who had defied the ministry on the issue. Present at one of Ossulston’s political dinners on 12 Dec., the same day St Albans registered his proxy with James Berkeley, 3rd earl of Berkeley, which was vacated by his return to the House on 14 Jan. 1712. On 14 Dec. it was reported that he and Cholmondeley were likely to be put out of office for their opposition to the ministry over the peace, and on 19 Dec. he was forecast as being opposed to permitting Hamilton to take his seat in the House by virtue of his British dukedom of Brandon.

As anticipated, St Albans was removed from his captaincy of the gentlemen pensioners in January 1712 and replaced with the reluctant Henry Somerset, 2nd duke of Beaufort. Add. 70250, Leeds to Oxford, 10 Jan. 1712; Worcs. RO, Hampton (Pakington) mss, 705:349/4739/1 (i)/60. On news of his displacement St Albans assured William Legge, earl of Dartmouth, that he had ‘always endeavoured to perform his duty to her majesty and shall always acquiesce in her pleasure’ and that he would meanwhile ‘be contented to stay in the country and take care of his numerous family.’ HMC Dartmouth, i. 309. St Albans received Berkeley’s proxy on 4 Feb., which was vacated by the earl’s resumption of his seat on 11 February. In spite of her husband’s loss of office, the duchess continued to petition Oxford for satisfaction of his arrears of pay during the summer of 1712, bitter at the way in which he was overlooked while his brothers’ claims were honoured: ‘we are nine quarters behind upon our several branches at lady day last, whilst the provision made for my lord’s brothers is duly paid every quarter.’ Add. 70282, Duchess of St Albans to Oxford, 14 May 1712. Absent from the House after 27 Feb., on 17 May St Albans again registered his proxy with Berkeley, and on 1 June he was listed by Oxford as a doubtful court supporter. The eventual payment of just half of the arrears failed to satisfy the duchess, who again appealed to Oxford for assistance in December. Throwing herself on his mercy she outlined the perilous state of the family finances, made the more pressing by St Albans’ poor health and the imminent departure of one of their sons into the navy. Ibid. 16 and 30 Dec. 1712.

St Albans was again included on one of Oxford’s lists of peers to be canvassed in advance of the new session in February 1713, but the following month, having presumably failed to win him over to the court, Oxford added his name to Swift’s assessment of those expected to oppose the ministry. St Albans took his seat in the House on 16 Apr. but attended just eight days of the session (approximately 11 per cent of the whole). In late May Oxford listed him as a peer to be contacted over the French commercial treaty, but in June he was again estimated as likely to desert the ministry over the measure.

St Albans was included in a list of poor lords thought likely to support the accession of the House of Hanover out of principle at the close of July. The same document recommended that he should be awarded a pension of £1,000 by the new dynasty. In August the duchess of St Albans again upbraided Oxford for his failure to ensure the payment of arrears, claiming that they had received only £300 and were still owed ‘upward of seven thousand pounds … which are almost the only provision which was granted by King Charles the second to support my lord’s honour and quality.’ Ibid. 3 Aug. 1713. Probably suffering from poor health once more, St Albans retreated to Bath in October where it was reported he proposed ‘to stay all the winter and follow the method he took the last’ by putting himself ‘at the head of a newly erected society of Whigs’ dubbed the Hanover Club. Bodl. Ballard 18, ff. 51-52. The same month one of St Albans’ contacts, Daniel Burgess, was reported as having arrived in Hanover where it was speculated that he was ‘employed by some who are no friends to the ministry.’ HMC Portland, v. 344.

Absent from its opening St Albans finally took his seat in the 1713 Parliament on 23 Feb. 1714 but attended just five days in all. On 12 Mar. he wrote to William Cowper, Baron (later Earl) Cowper, enclosing his proxy, not doubting ‘the safety of it in your lordship’s hands’ and which he hoped Cowper would enter ‘when you judge there will be an occasion for it.’ Herts. ALS, DE/P/F53, St. Albans to Cowper, 12 Mar. 1714. The proxy was duly registered on 23 March. Forecast by Daniel Finch, 2nd earl of Nottingham, as an opponent of the schism bill in late May or early June, St Albans returned to the House on 1 Aug., attending ten days of the brief 15-day session that met in the wake of the queen’s death.

St Albans’ fortunes revived under the new dynasty. Restored to his captaincy of the gentlemen pensioners, in November 1714 he was appointed lord lieutenant of Berkshire while his duchess was made groom of the stole to the new princess of Wales. Add. 70070, newsletter, 11 Nov. 1714. On the death of his brother Northumberland in 1716, St Albans was also elected to the high stewardship of New Windsor. Bond, 141. Taking his seat in the first Parliament of the new reign on 17 Mar. 1715, St Albans continued to attend with slightly increased frequency than hitherto until 1725, sitting for the final time on 9 April. Details of the latter part of his career will be considered in the second phase of this work.

In poor health for the final few years of his life, St Albans died at Bath on 10 May 1726 and was buried at Westminster Abbey. Of his surviving sons, six served as Members of the Commons (four of them for New Windsor). HP Commons 1715-54, i. 448-50. One of them, Vere Beauclerk* [1522], was later promoted to the Lords as Baron Vere of Hanworth. A seventh son, James Beauclerk* [1091], entered the church and rose to become bishop of Hereford. Administration of St Albans’ estate was granted to his widow following the death of each of the executors named in his will during his lifetime. TNA, PROB 11/610. He was succeeded in the peerage by his eldest son, also Charles Beauclerk* [1089], as 2nd duke of St Albans.