LUMLEY, John Savile, viscount Lumley (1788-1856), of 95 Park Street, London and Rufford Abbey, Nottinghamshire

Maimed at a young age by his abusive and psychopathic father, Lumley, who was also sometimes referred to as John Lumley Savile, represented his native Nottinghamshire as a Whig, then a Reformer, for nearly a decade. His paternal grandfather was Richard Lumley Saunderson, fourth earl of Scarborough, of Sandbeck Park, Yorkshire, who had married Barbara, sister and heir of Sir George Savile, 8^th bt., of Rufford, Nottinghamshire, and MP for Yorkshire, 1759-83. While the earl of Scarbrough possessed the Sandbeck estate, the heir, pursuant to Savile’s will, held the Rufford estate.1HP Commons, 1820-1832, vi. 181. This potentially testing family arrangement became the subject of a long and bitter dispute between Lumley and his father, the reverend John Lumley, prebendary of York. Known as ‘Black Jack’, Lumley’s father was remembered as:

a most singular character and of the most peculiar habits, and very little intimacy existed between himself and his son; indeed, it is pretty well ascertained that it was through his father’s violent conduct towards him, when a boy, that he was a cripple through life.2Nottingham Journal, 14 Nov. 1856.

Despite his disability, Lumley travelled widely in Europe during his youth, though his impulsiveness and complete negligence with money did him no favours. In 1810 his mother lectured him that:

you cannot expect to support yourself on any income if you give way to that foolish and extravagant propensity of buying up every horse you happen to take a fancy too.3Notts. Archives, Savile mss DD/SR/221/83.

His impetuosity was again evident when he formed a liaison with a married French woman, known as Agnes, with whom he had several children. Heavily indebted, Lumley, much to his parents’ chagrin, recklessly built up his liabilities on the Rufford estate, prompting his father to offer his ‘extravagant, undutiful son’ a grant of £27,000, which appeared to eventually secure a détente between the two men.4HP Commons, 1820-1832, vi. 181-2.

His financial affairs stabilised, Lumley turned his attention to his political ambitions, and in 1826 was returned in the Whig interest for Nottinghamshire. A sworn advocate of religious toleration, he consistently supported Catholic relief and voted steadily for the main details of the Grey ministry’s reform bill.5Ibid. Following the succession of his father as 7^th earl of Scarbrough in June 1832, he was styled viscount Lumley.

At the 1832 general election Lumley came forward for the newly-created division of Nottinghamshire North. Although his father dismissed the notion that he had any partisan electioneering influence, Lumley certainly enjoyed the backing of the influential duke of Portland, and following a hard fought campaign in which he reiterated his support for civil and religious liberties, he was elected in first place with a comfortable majority.6Sheffield Independent, 22 Dec. 1832. He duly voted for the removal of Jewish disabilities, 22 May 1833, but against the appropriation clause in the Irish church reform bill. On all other matters in the 1833 session, he gave his steady support to the Grey ministry.7R. Gooch, The book of the reformed Parliament: being a synopsis of the votes of the reformed House of Commons (1834), 20-21.

The idleness which often characterised Lumley’s youth did not entirely disappear during his parliamentary career, and in the 1834 session he rarely troubled the division lobbies.8Ibid., 42-3. When present he voted against a fixed duty on corn, 7 Mar. 1834, and backed Althorp’s motion to replace church rates with a land tax, 21 Apr. 1834. In his only known spoken contribution in the post-Reform era, he pressed the claims of the handloom weavers’ petitions, 5 Mar. 1834. He also sat on the 1834 select committee on the supply of water to London.9PP 1834 (571), xv. 2.

At the 1835 general election Lumley declared that Wellington was ‘not capable of performing the part he has now adopted’ and it did ‘not become’ Peel ‘to be nominated premier of the man of Waterloo’.10Parliamentary test book (1835), 100; The Times, 20 Jan. 1835. Returned unopposed, he backed Abercromby for the speakership, 19 Feb. 1835. This was to be his last recorded vote in the Commons. On 21 February he succeeded as 8^th earl of Scarbrough when his father was killed almost instantly after a fall from his horse. The general sense of contempt in which his father was held was characterised by the duke of Newcastle’s comment that:

There was never a more odious or more detested character. Poor man, he was truly unfit to appear suddenly before his maker, but his death, awful as it is, must be a blessing to all those who had anything to do with him.11Unhappy reactionary: the diaries of the fourth duke of Newcastle-under-Lyne, 1822-1850 (2003), ed. R.A. Gaunt, 104.

Unlike his father, Lumley actually attended the House of Lords, though, mirroring his career in the Commons, he rarely contributed to debate. In 1839 he succeeded the fourth duke of Newcastle as lord-lieutenant of Nottinghamshire. His only long-lasting achievement was establishing in law his right to hold both the Sandbeck and Rufford estates, which had previously been entailed upon by peer and heir respectively.12HP Commons, 1820-1832, vi. 184.

Lumley died at his seat at Sandbeck Park, Yorkshire, in October 1856.13The Times, 31 Oct. 1856. The earldom and the Sandbeck estate passed to his first cousin once removed, Richard George Lumley (1813-84), of Tickhill Castle, Yorkshire, while the Rufford estate was bequeathed to his second surviving son, Henry, a captain in the 2^nd life guards. His eldest surviving son, John Savile Lumley, had a successful career as a diplomatist. In 1887 he dropped the name of Lumley and succeeded his younger brother Augustus to the Rufford estate, and following his retirement from the diplomatic service in 1888, he was raised to the peerage as Baron Savile of Rufford.14T. Seccombe, ‘Savile, John, first Baron Savile of Rufford (1818-1896)’, rev. H.C.G. Matthew, Oxf. DNB, www.oxforddnb.com. The Savile family papers are held by the Nottinghamshire Archives.15Notts. Archives, Savile mss DD/SR.