LE MARCHANT, Sir Denis (1795-1874), of Harley Street, London of Chobham Place, Surr.

Le Marchant was born at Newcastle-upon-Tyne, yet his family’s origins lay in Guernsey, where his lineal ancestor had been chief magistrate and lieutenant governor in 1204. His father, one of the most distinguished officers of the Peninsular War, was the founder of the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, and the Army Staff College, and fell leading the heavy brigade at Salamanca on 22 July 1812. His elder brother, Carey, was killed at Le Nive in November 1814.1W.R. Williams, The Parliamentary History of the County of Worcester (1897), 112; J. Sweetman, ‘Le Marchant, John Gaspard’, Oxford DNB, xxxiii. 313-5. He was one of ten children; his younger brother, John, becoming a successful soldier and governor of Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, and Malta: H.M. Chichester, rev. L. Milne, ‘Le Marchant, Sir John Gaspard’, Oxford DNB, xxxiii. 315-6. He was brought up by his maternal aunt and her husband, Peter Mourant, on Guernsey and, after attending Eton, left Cambridge without taking a degree. He practiced for some years as a barrister of the court of chancery, gaining prominence by appearing for the petitioner in the Gardner peerage case of 1827, and publishing a highly-commended report on the law of legitimacy in the following year.2See Report of the Proceedings of the House of Lords on the Claims to the Barony of Gardner (1828). In November 1830 he became principal secretary to the lord chancellor, Henry Brougham, but the post was to be ‘no sinecure’.3He owed his appointment to the recommendation of Brougham’s brothers, who knew Le Marchant well, and thought it ‘absolutely essential’ that Brougham have a secretary ‘whom he could really trust’: A. Aspinall (ed.), Three Early Nineteenth-Century Diaries (1952), vii. Le Marchant was regarded by at least one contemporary as ‘a clever industrious fellow’, and regularly attended Commons debates on the reform bill, distinguishing himself by the reports that he prepared for the use of the Cabinet, and which were read and admired by the King.4H. Reeve (ed.), The Greville Memoirs (1886), iii. 22; J.A. Hamilton, rev. H.C.G. Matthew, ‘Le Marchant, Sir Denis’, Oxford DNB, xxxiii. 312-3; D. Le Marchant to J. Abercromby, 13 Dec. 1831, NLS MS 24762, f. 49. For further examples, see A. Aspinall, ‘Le Marchant’s Reports of Debates in the House of Commons, 1833’, EHR, lviii (1943), 78-105. In September 1833 he published a highly successful tract entitled The Reform Ministry and the Reformed Parliament, which reviewed the debates and measures of the parliament’s first session. Intended primarily as ‘an appeal to facts as a vindication of reform’, it concluded that the Commons had never been more observant of the rules of the House, nor had it ever got through so large an amount of business.5Illustrated London News, 22 Feb. 1851. Published under a pseudonym, the pamphlet contained contributions from Lords Althorp, Stanley, Palmerston and Sir James Graham. Passing though nine editions, and selling upwards of 20,000 copies, it was translated into French and German. After the change of ministry Le Marchant, temporarily estranged from Brougham, became clerk of the crown in chancery in July 1834, and was appointed a secretary to the board of trade in 1836.6Aspinall, Three Early Nineteenth-Century Diaries, vii; ‘Le Marchant, Sir Denis’, 313.

Having for some time been active in Whig party management, Le Marchant was appointed joint secretary to the treasury in June 1841 and, having acquired an estate at Chobham, Surrey, was made a baronet by Lord Melbourne that August.7Le Marchant had supervised the Liberal party’s relationship with the press since about 1834: T. Barnes to D. Le Marchant, 27 June, 2 July 1834: HLRO LEM/2/3. By this time Le Marchant was largely responsible for the party’s electioneering, yet his appointment to the Treasury was ‘rather surprising’ as he had never sat in the Commons. His failure to secure a seat for the notoriously corrupt borough of Harwich as ‘the Treasury nominee’ at the 1841 general election8The Times, 30 June 1841. The return was petitioned, but a compromise under which Le Marchant would have been seated, was stymied by the appointment of John Roebuck’s elections committee, which ‘gave a death-blow to all such negotiations for the future’: PP 1842 (458) v. 75 [5-6, 23-51]; Illustrated London News, 22 Feb. 1851. prevented him from developing a role as government chief whip, and he resigned his position at the treasury the following May.9C. Howard to Le Marchant, 15 Jan. 1841; D.Dundas to Le Marchant, 27 July 1841: HLRO LEM/1/7/13 & 8; J. Sainty & G.W. Cox, ‘The Identification of Government Whips in the House of Commons 1830-1905’, Parliamentary History, xvi (1997), 339-58 at 343 and 350. Turning to literary pursuits, he privately published the memoirs of his father in 1841, and edited Horace Walpole’s Memoirs of the Reign of George III in 1845.10D. Le Marchant, Memoirs of the Late Major General Le Marchant (reprinted 1997). The four Walpole volumes contain copious and valuable biographical notes derived principally from manuscript sources: Illustrated London News, 22 Feb. 1851. However, having continued to administer the electoral finances of the Whig party, he became private secretary to Lord John Russell late in 1845 and served in that capacity until 1847.11Lord Carlisle to Le Marchant, 7 Jan. 1842; Lord J. Russell to Le Marchant, 26 Aug. 1843; Lord Brougham to Le Marchant, 17 Dec. 1845: HLRO LEM/1/11/18, 1/14 & 1/4/1; The Times, 15, 18 Dec. 1845. He was returned in unusual circumstances for Worcester in July 1846, substituting for Sir Thomas Wilde at the last minute when the newly-appointed attorney-general was unexpectedly offered the vacant position of chief justice of common pleas.12Daily News, 2 July 1846; Williams, Parliamentary History, 111-12; Le Marchant had visited Worcester merely to inform Wilde of Russell’s offer of the vacancy: Annual Register (1846), 104. Having assured electors of his fullest commitment to free trade, and advocated ‘equal rights’ for Ireland, and universal literacy, he entered the House charged by his constituents to seek legislation for the improvement of sanitary provisions in towns and cities.13Berrow’s Worcester Journal, 9 July 1846; T.C. Turberville, Worcestershire in the Nineteenth Century (1852), 38, 190-1. He took no very active part in parliamentary proceedings, but diligently voted with the Whig ministry, opposing the abolition of flogging in the army, 7 Aug. 1846, and the factories bill, 17 Feb. 1847, and supporting a reduction of sugar duties, 28 July 1846, and the health of towns bill of June 1847. He was regarded as an ‘active and useful’ member by his constituents, securing for Worcester the ‘long sought boon’ of a daily mail delivery from London. Amidst rumours of his wife’s ill-health, and apprehending that he would be unable to devote sufficient attention to ‘as large and influential a constituency as Worcester’, he retired at the 1847 general election.14Berrow’s Worcester Journal, 8, 15, 29 July 1847. Upon the return of the Liberal party to power, he was appointed under-secretary of state at the home office. During the Chartist demonstrations of 1848 his name was frequently before the public, and he soon returned to his former position at the board of trade, in which capacity he gave evidence to several parliamentary committees.15Illustrated London News, 22 Feb. 1851. See his evidence to the select committees on miscellaneous expenditure and official salaries: PP 1847-48 (543) (543-II) xviii Pt. I. 1, xviii Pt. II. 1 [278-90]; PP 1850 (611) xv. 179 [102-22].

On 30 September 1850 Le Marchant was nominated chief clerk to the House of Commons at £2,000 per annum, a post he filled with great industry and only occasional lapses of duty.16Henry Drummond Wolff recorded ‘that on one occasion great disorder arose in the House. Mr. Speaker called him up, and said, “What do you think should be done, Sir Denis?” The Clerk at the Table shook his head, saying, “I think, sir, you must use the greatest caution,” and he immediately left the House by the door at the back of the Speaker’s Chair.’: H.D. Wolff, Rambling Recollections (1908), ii. 107-8. He retired with a formal vote of thanks in February 1871, when William Gladstone bore testimony to his efficiency and judgment, and ‘the fair and equitable spirit’ in which he had conducted the business of the House.17Hansard, 13 Feb. 1871, vol. 204, cc. 232-4. It was largely upon Le Marchant’s recommendation that Thomas Erskine May was chosen as his successor: W.E. Gladstone to T. Erskine May, 12 Aug. 1870: HLRO, ERM/1/16. He died at his home at Belgrave Place in 1874 and was succeeded by his eldest son, Henry Denis (1839-1915), a chancery barrister who married the eldest daughter of Lord Belper. Le Marchant’s Memoir of John Charles, Viscount Althorp, Third Earl Spencer was completed and published posthumously by his son in 1876.18The Times, 2 Feb. 1871, 4 Nov. 1874; Illustrated London News, 21 Nov. 1874. His wealth at death was under £9,000: ‘Le Marchant, Sir Denis’, 313.