FITZROY, Robert (1805-1865), of 25 Lowndes Street, Belgrave Square, London, Mdx.

Fitzroy, of whom Charles Darwin wrote ‘I never knew in my life so mixed a character’, is best remembered for his command of the HMS Beagle, on which Darwin voyaged, and for his contributions to meteorology, particularly forecasting.1C. Darwin to J.D. Hodder, 4 May 1865, The correspondence of Charles Darwin, ed. F. Burkhardt et al (2002), xiii. 137-9. Born at Ampton Hall, Suffolk, he was the youngest son of Lord Charles Fitzroy, MP for Bury St. Edmunds, 1787-96 and 1802-18, and grandson of Augustus Henry, third duke of Grafton. A nephew of Lord Castlereagh, Darwin considered that Fitzroy became ‘very much like him in manners and appearance’.2Ibid. At the age of thirteen he attended the Royal Naval College, Portsmouth, where he excelled academically, and in his lieutenant’s examination came first out of the twenty-seven candidates. His early naval career was spent largely in South America, and in 1828 he took command of the brig Beagle and began charting that continent’s southern coasts before returning to England two years later with four young Fuegians.3A. McConnell, ‘Fitzroy, Robert’, Oxf. DNB, www.oxforddnb.com.

At the 1831 general election Fitzroy came forward in the Tory interest for Ipswich, in his native county of Suffolk, but after a heated contest in which he warned of the threat that the reform bill posed to the constitution, he was defeated in third place.4HP Commons, 1820-32, iii. 56. After this political setback, he sailed in the Beagle to return the Fuegians to their families and, accompanied by Darwin, continued his hydrographic surveys. The two men lived in ‘reasonable harmony’ during the five-year expedition, though Darwin later recalled that Fitzroy’s ‘mind was quite out of balance once during our voyage’.5H.E.L. Mellersh, FitzRoy of the Beagle (1968), 62-73; McConnell, ‘Fitzroy, Robert’; Darwin to Hodder, 4 May 1865, Darwin Correspondence, xiii. 137. Moreover, his impulsive decision to purchase a companion ship to aid his survey earned him a rebuke from the admiralty, which refused to reimburse him, causing him financial difficulties from which he never recovered.6McConnell, ‘Fitzroy, Robert’. His reputation as a hydrographer, though, was beyond doubt. Upon his return in 1836 he was awarded a gold medal by the Royal Geographical Society and his Narrative of the surveying voyages of HMS Adventure and HMS Beagle was published in three volumes in 1839. The same year he was elected an elder brother of Trinity House.7Ibid.

At the 1841 general election Fitzroy was brought forward by Lord Londonderry, his maternal uncle, for Durham City. Although he was elected without a contest, his return became mired in controversy when it emerged that Londonderry had encouraged a potential second Conservative candidate, William Sheppard, to retire.8P. Salmon, Electoral reform at work: local politics and national parties, 1832-1841 (2002), 205; T.J. Nossiter, Influence, opinion and political idioms in reformed England: case studies from the North-east, 1832-74 (1975), 121. The matter was further complicated by Fitzroy’s subsequent contention that Sheppard’s withdrawal had actually been ‘a disgraceful desertion’ on his part and ‘an event unparalleled in the annals of electioneering’, leading to a quarrel between the two men that culminated in Fitzroy striking Sheppard with his umbrella outside the United Service club.9Mellersh, Fitzroy, 184-91. Both men subsequently published their accounts of an episode which had clearly upset Fitzroy, who, in a subsequent debate on election compromises, gave an impassioned defence of his return, insisting that ‘if any one should get up in this House, or state publicly or privately that I have obtained my seat by corrupt practices… I will tell him, I repeat, that it is a foul lie and calumny’.10W. Sheppard, The conduct of Captain Robert Fitzroy R.N. in reference to the electors of Durham and the laws of honour, exposed by William Sheppard Esquire (1842); R. Fitzroy, Captain Fitzroy’s statement re collision between William Sheppard and the author (1841); Hansard, 6 May 1842, vol. 62, cc. 218, 227-8.

An assiduous attender, Fitzroy divided steadily with Peel on most major issues, but as a devout Anglican, he voted against the Maynooth grant, 20 July 1842. He also periodically questioned ministers over the wisdom of their decisions, for example challenging Lord Stanley, then colonial secretary, over the appointment of a mere ‘engineer officer’ to the governorship of the Falkland Islands, 30 Sept. 1841. He could also be noticeably brazen in his style of speaking, causing him to clash with fellow members. During a debate on agricultural distress, he mocked Richard Cobden for telling the House that ‘he had seen cheese on the summits of the Alps’, arguing that ‘expressing opinions which had been stated over and over again long ago’ did little to alleviate the present distress, 24 Sept. 1841. In response to William Hutt’s attempts to inquire into the Peel ministry’s appointments of borough magistrates, he stated that ‘he was not indisposed to laugh at the motion itself’, describing it as a politically-motivated attempt by an opposition that ‘was of so motley a character as to be most fitly designated by the compound term “Whig-Radical”’, 5 May 1842.

Unsurprisingly, the majority of Fitzroy’s contributions concerned maritime affairs and displayed a mastery of detail. He raised his concerns about the proposals contained in the national floating breakwater bill, insisting that the planned breakwater would only last five years given its structural inadequacies, 15 Mar. 1842, and in a debate on the customs acts, he warned the Commons of the dangers of American competition in whaling, stressing that the profession was ‘the best nursery for seamen we possessed’, 27 May 1842. His expertise was also evident in his questioning of witnesses on the select committee on the Caledonian Canal and in September 1842 he was appointed acting conservator of the river Mersey.11PP 1842 (218), xiv. 321-57; Mellersh, Fitzroy, 194. Fitzroy also sat on the select committee on the West Coast of Africa, PP 1842 (551), xi. 2. Later that year he escorted the visiting Archduke Friedrich of Austria on a tour of the nation’s dockyards and manufactories.12For coverage of the tour, see The Times, 18 Nov. 1842. His most successful contribution, however, was his introduction of a bill ‘to require and regulate the examinations of all persons who wished to become masters and chief mates of merchant vessels’, 28 July 1842, which was proposed as a way to reduce the number of shipwrecks.13The merits of the bill were discussed in the select committee on shipwrecks, PP 1843 (549), 1. The bill led to the Mercantile Marine Act of 1850 (13 and 14 vict., c. 93), which made certificates obligatory.

In April 1843 Fitzroy retired from Parliament upon his appointment as the second governor of New Zealand, following the death of his predecessor, Captain William Hobson. He was instructed by Stanley to mediate between the white settlers, represented by the New Zealand Company, and the Maori, and ensure that the treaty of Waitangi, which the colonial secretary believed granted all the country’s lands to the latter, was strictly adhered to.14A. Hawkins, The forgotten prime minister: the 14th earl of Derby (2007), i. 235. However, with tensions already running high, Fitzroy’s decision to side with the Maori following the massacre of settlers by natives provoked violent clashes, forcing him to call in troops from New South Wales.15Ibid. Although Stanley initially backed his governor, Fitzroy’s failure to send regular reports became a source of political embarrassment, and on 1 March 1845 he rebuked Fitzroy, informing him that his silence represented a dereliction of duty.16The Times, 18 Dec. 1844; Stanley to Fitzroy, 1 Mar. 1845, BL Add. Mss. 40468. On 11 April, Stanley submitted a report to the Cabinet outlining Fitzroy’s failures, citing the irregularity of his dispatches, his failure to organise a militia, his lack of firmness in dealing with the Maori question, the issuing of what amounted to paper money, and the imposition of taxes on the sale of land without authority, prompting the Cabinet to agree to Stanley’s recommendation that Fitzroy be recalled.17Stanley memo, 11 Apr. 1845, BL Add. Mss. 40468.

Following the announcement of his recall in the Commons, Henry Rous, Conservative member for Westminster and briefly lord of the Admiralty, reflected that ‘an angel from heaven could not reconcile the differences between the natives, the missionaries, and the New Zealand Company’, and similar sentiments followed, although Sir Henry Ward, Liberal member for Sheffield and later secretary to the admiralty, insisted that Fitzroy’s conduct ‘had been most mischievous and unfortunate’.18Hansard, 5 May 1845, vol. 80, cc. 183-6. Although the most recent assessment of Fitzroy offers a sympathetic interpretation of his tenure as governor,19P. Moon, Governor in crisis, 1843-1845 (2000). there is little doubt that his ‘high-handed’ and ‘naval quarter-deck manner’ had served to exacerbate an already volatile situation.20Hawkins, The forgotten prime minister, 293. Upon hearing of his recall, his uncle, Lord Hardinge, wrote in private correspondence that ‘there is an obliquity and obstinacy in Fitzroy’s character and judgement which made me … most anxious that he should not accept this New Zealand governorship. I am afraid he must be recalled’.21Lord Hardinge to Walter James, 2 June 1845, The letters of the first viscount Hardinge of Lahore to Lady Hardinge and Sir Walter and Lady James, 1844-1847, ed. B.S. Singh (1986), 82.

Following his recall, Fitzroy held brief positions as superintendent of the Woolwich Dockyard, commander of the frigate HMS Arrogant, managing director of the General Screw Steam Shipping Company, and personal secretary to his uncle Lord Hardinge, before being appointed superintendent of the board of trade’s newly established meteorological department in 1854, whereupon he assiduously investigated the relationship between the specific gravity of sea water and changes in the weather.22McConnell, ‘Fitzroy, Robert’. Believing that the falling barometer signified oncoming storms, he initiated the display at British ports and harbours of ‘coastal’ barometers, carrying ‘Fitzroy’s Rules’ for simple weather forecasting. He subsequently collected synchronous weather reports from around Britain and mainland Europe, using the newly invented electric telegraph, and compiled ‘synoptic charts’, a term still in use ‘to denote charts showing conditions across an area at any one time’.23Ibid. In August 1861 the first storm-warnings based on his work were published in newspapers.24Ibid. Fitzroy introduced the term ‘forecast’ into meteorological vocabulary, though in his Weather book, published in 1863, he insisted that forecasts were not ‘prophesies or predictions’.25R. Fitzroy, The weather book (1863), 171.

Although Fitzroy’s work was recognized abroad, particularly in France where he had carried out parts of his research, the British press, whilst initially supportive, became increasingly sceptical about his ‘forecasts’, with a leading article in The Times commenting that ‘Nature seems to have taken special pleasure in confounding the conjectures of science’, and a later one stating that ‘Admiral Fitzroy has still to convince the public’.26The Times, 11 Apr. 1862. The board of trade was also critical, believing that his forecasts exceeded his instructions to collect data.27McConnell, ‘Fitzroy, Robert’. Feeling increasingly isolated and the subject of ridicule, Fitzroy committed suicide by cutting his throat with a razor at his suburban home in Lyndhurst, Westow Hill, Upper Norwood, Surrey, on the morning of 30 April 1865.28Mellersh, Fitzroy, 280-4; McConnell, ‘Fitzroy, Robert’. The coroner reported that he had taken his own life while of unsound mind.29The Times, 4 May 1865. Upon hearing of his death, Darwin wrote privately that ‘I was astounded at news about Fitzroy, but I ought not to have been, for I remember once thinking it likely’.30Darwin to Hodder, 4 May 1865, Darwin Correspondence, xiii. 137. He was succeeded by his only son from his first marriage, Robert O’Brien Fitzroy, also a captain in the royal navy.

After his death, the ‘Fitzroy barometer’, consisting of a siphon barometer with attached thermometer, began to be manufactured. It was still being produced in the late twentieth century. His name was given to several ‘geographical features’ in Patagonia and Australia, and in 2002 a shipping forecast area off north-west Spain was named after him.31McConnell, ‘Fitzroy, Robert’. His official and scientific papers are located at the National Archives, Kew, London,32Fitzroy Papers, Ref. BJ 7. and his correspondence with Peel is held in the British Library, London.33BL Add. Mss. 40428-40597.