BALDOCK, Edward Holmes (1812-1875), of 31 Grosvenor Place, London

Baldock was born in London and baptised at St. Pancras Church but both his parents came originally from the Weald of Sussex.1IGI. His father and namesake Edward Holmes Baldock (1777-1845) established himself in business just off Oxford Street, dealing in glass and porcelain, and became one of London’s most important furniture dealers and restorers.2Dictionary of English furniture makers 1660-1840, ed. G. Beard and C. Gilbert (1986), 34. He rose from modest beginnings to the heights of his profession.3G. de Bellaigue, ‘Edward Holmes Baldock’, Connoisseur, 190 (1975), 25. His speciality was 17th century French furniture and he supplied items to many important houses throughout the country.4Dictionary of English furniture makers 1660-1840, 34. His clients included the dukes of Buccleuch and Northumberland, Lord Lowther, William Beckford, Sir Walter Scott and George IV and he was the official purveyor of china to William IV and Queen Victoria.5Dictionary of English furniture makers 1660-1840, 34; G. de Bellaigue, ‘Edward Holmes Baldock’, Connoisseur, 189 (1975), 291; P. Hughes, The Wallace Collection catalogue of furniture (1996), i. 30, 35; Boughton House; the English Versailles, ed. T. Murdoch (1992), 143-7; Life at Fonthill; from the correspondence of William Beckford (2006), 73, 74, 78, 260; French connection; Scotland and the arts of France (1985), 93; G. de Bellaigue, James A. de Rothschild Collection at Waddesdon Manor: Furniture, clocks and gilt bronzes (1974), 106, 476, 478; Letters of Sir Walter Scott, ed. H.J.C. Grierson (1932-7), viii. 111, 181, 214. He also redecorated imported Sèvres porcelain which is known as ‘Baldock Sèvres’.6G. de Bellaigue, ‘Edward Holmes Baldock’, Connoisseur, 189 (1975), 291; 190 (1975), 20. It has been said that he sometimes made copies of furniture ‘with an intent to deceive’7The Frick Collection: an illustrated catalogue (1969), v. 286. and that he had ‘a roguish career’.8Boughton House, 144. His shop was a fashionable meeting-place and centre of political gossip and it was ‘remarkable how many important works of art passed through Baldock’s hands’, among them an escritoire which had belonged to Napoleon which was exhibited in the Guildhall for the visit of the French emperor and empress in 1855.9G. de Bellaigue, ‘Edward Holmes Baldock’, Connoisseur, 189 (1975), 293; Morning Chronicle, 20 Apr. 1855; The Standard, 20 Apr. 1855. He sold his stock in 1843, and retired to live in Hyde Park Place.10G. de Bellaigue, ‘Edward Holmes Baldock’, Connoisseur, 189 (1975), 291; Dictionary of English furniture makers 1660-1840, 34. On his death in 1845, his son inherited most of the estate, although there was a bequest to the poor of his native Sussex villages.11Morning Chronicle, 3 Dec. 1845; John Bull, 6 Dec. 1845; Gent. Mag. (1846), i. 108; G. de Bellaigue, ‘Edward Holmes Baldock’, Connoisseur, 189 (1975), 290; E. Turner, ‘Uckfield past and present’, Sussex archaeological collections, 12 (1860), 18-9; E.M. Bell-Irving, Mayfield, the story of an old Wealden village (1903), 111. The younger Baldock had worked in his father’s business and, although he never took control of it,12Morning Post, 17 July 1847. his expertise was used when he acted as a juror for the glass section of the Great Exhibition in 1851.13The Times, 26 Apr. 1851, 30 May 1851. In the year that his father retired he was admitted to the Middle Temple, although there is no indication that he was ever called to the bar.14Register of admissions to the Honourable Society of the Middle Temple (1949), ii. 496.

When Baldock appeared as a candidate for Shrewsbury in 1847 he was ‘a stranger’ and a largely unknown figure, although he ‘soon obtained popularity’.15VCH Salop, iii. 328; H.T. Weyman, ‘Shrewsbury Members of Parliament’, Transactions of the Shropshire Archaeological Society, 4th ser., 12 (1929-30), 260. Perhaps confusing him with his late father, the Morning Post reported that the Peelites had ‘despatched a Mr Baldock to contest Shrewsbury’ who ‘formerly followed the respectable, and that very distinguished calling of keeping a glass and china shop’.16Morning Post, 14 July 1847. Even after his election he was being referred to as ‘the well-known chinaman in Hanway Yard’.17Sheffield and Rotherham Independent, 21 Aug. 1847. Because he was unknown in political circles the confusion extended to his allegiance. The Morning Post reported that ‘the Shrewsbury people will not have anything to say to him, the more so as it is known that the Protectionists have a candidate of standing and position ready to bring forward’.18Morning Post, 14 July 1847. Disraeli had been the member for Shrewsbury until he transferred to Buckinghamshire in 1847 and it is likely that Baldock was his approved successor.19VCH Salop, iii. 328. It seems certain that he was never a Peelite and that he was always a Protectionist. A correction to the Morning Post pointed out that he was on good terms with the 4th duke of Newcastle who was strongly opposed to reform and to free trade.20Morning Post, 17 July 1847. After his election, when he and the Liberal Robert Slaney defeated the Peelite George Tomline, some of the newspapers listed him as a Peelite but several changed their designation quickly.21Morning Post, 24 July 1847, 26 July 1847; Aberdeen Journal, 4 Aug. 1847, 18 Aug. 1847; Leeds Mercury, 7 Aug. 1847, 28 Aug. 1847. From September 1847 onwards no further doubts about his Protectionist allegiance were expressed and he subscribed to Bentinck’s testimonial in 1848.22John Bull, 18 Nov. 1848. He voted for agricultural interests regularly in the division lobbies,23Morning Post, 31 Mar. 1851. although on one occasion his absence provoked criticism.24Berrow’s Worcester Journal, 22 Mar. 1848. He canvassed for re-election in 1852 ‘on protectionist principles’,25Morning Post, 22 Apr. 1852. arguing that ‘events of the last five years have more than realised our worst forebodings’ and that ‘free trade has practically disappointed everyone, without benefitting the other classes of the community it has positively injured the owners and occupiers of the soil’.26The Times, 12 Apr. 1852. He pledged opposition to the Maynooth grant and support for the revision of income tax and for ‘any measures tending to relieve our mercantile and colonial energies from the effects of official mismanagement’.27The Times, 12 Apr. 1852; Morning Post, 1 Apr. 1852. He was returned second in the poll.

Baldock is not known to have spoken in debate and was not a particularly assiduous attender, present for 43 out of 219 divisions in 1849, 49 out of 257 divisions in 1853, and 53 out of 198 in the 1856 session.28Hampshire Telegraph, 20 Oct. 1849; Daily News, 21 Sept. 1853; J.P. Gassiot, Third letter to J.A. Roebuck, with a full analysis of the divisions in the House of Commons during the last session of Parliament (1857), 15. However, when present, he was unafraid to oppose Conservative party leaders, dividing against them on the police bill, 10 Mar. 1856, the billeting of soldiers in Scotland, 7 Apr. 1856, and the appellate jurisdiction bill, 10 July 1856. He also voted in the minority on colonial policy, because he was concerned about the cost to the treasury,29The Times, 18 Apr. 1849. but several years later he attended the launching of the Victoria, ‘the founding of a great navy in the southern seas’.30The Times, 2 July 1855. Despite his Protectionist sympathies, he did not vote with the die-hard Protectionist minority of 53, 26 Nov. 1852. Baldock’s family had a strong Protestant allegiance,31G. de Bellaigue, ‘Edward Holmes Baldock’, Connoisseur, 189 (1975), 290. and he was a supporter of the Shrewsbury and Shropshire Protestant Alliance.32Essex Standard, 27 Feb. 1852. He presented petitions against the Maynooth grant, and voted in the same direction, 19 Feb. 1857.33The Times, 23 Mar. 1852; Morning Chronicle, 23 Mar. 1852. He presented a petition against Papal aggression in 1851 and joined a deputation to Palmerston on the subject of nunneries two years later.34Morning Post, 26 Mar. 1851, 21 June 1853. He voted in the minority on the oath of abjuration bill, 9 Apr. 1856, and on education in Ireland, 23 June 1856. He consistently opposed Rothschild’s admission to the House and the removal of Jewish disabilities, and also presented petitions on this issue.35Hansard, 26 July 1850, vol. 113, c. 333; 29 July 1850, vol. 113, c. 452; 11 Mar. 1853, vol. 125, c. 120; The Times, 19 June 1850, 5 Apr. 1851.

Among the other subjects on which he presented petitions during his time in the House were Sunday labour in the post office and the Sunday opening of public houses and of Crystal Palace36The Times, 19 Mar. 1850, 31 May 1850, 10 July 1850; Morning Post, 11 Apr. 1854; The Standard, 20 Feb. 1856., as well as petitions against property tax, 8 Mar. 1848, in favour of the marriages bill, 27 July 1849, and against the charitable trusts bill in April 1852.37The Times, 27 Apr. 1852; Morning Post, 27 Apr. 1852. He joined deputations to the president of the board of trade on the Severn navigation bill in 1849 and to the home secretary on medical reform the following year.38The Times, 21 Apr. 1849, 3 May 1850; Berrow’s Worcester Journal, 26 Apr. 1849; Morning Post, 3 May 1850. He sat on select committees on the Bury St. Edmunds election, electric telegraph companies, the Belfast improvement bill, the Harwich improvement bill and a number of other private bills.39PP 1852-53 (569), viii. 764; The Times, 27 May 1852; Belfast News-Letter, 18 June 1850; Essex Standard, 28 Mar. 1851. In December 1854 the proposal that 15,000 troops should be recruited abroad and sent to the Crimea prompted him to write to Jolliffe, the chief whip, that ‘the people of all grades [in Shrewsbury] are up in arms’ about it and that he was ‘quite charmed’ to think that the Conservatives might oppose the foreign enlistment bill.40R. Stewart, The foundation of the Conservative Party 1830-1867 (1978), 303. However when the bill passed, despite Conservative opposition, Baldock was absent from the division lobbies, 22 Dec. 1854. He was, however, present to vote for Disraeli’s hostile motion on the conduct of the Crimean war, 25 May 1855, as well as Roebuck’s motion censuring the Cabinet, 19 July 1855, and divided against Palmerston on Cobden’s motion on the Canton question, 3 Mar. 1857.

Baldock’s retirement was announced just before the dissolution in March 1857.41Wrexham and Denbighshire Weekly Advertiser and Cheshire, Shropshire, Flintshire and North Wales Register, 14 Mar. 1857; Morning Post, 25 Mar. 1857. He played no further part in political life except to support the unsuccessful campaigns of Viscount Chelsea in Middlesex in 1857 and W.H. Smith in the Westminster constituency in 1865.42The Standard, 1 Apr. 1857; The Times, 2 Apr. 1857; The Era, 25 June 1865. His retirement came just after his appearance in Westminster magistrates’ court where he was convicted of assault during a dispute over the ownership of a dog.43The Times, 25 Feb. 1857. The magistrate fined him 2 shillings, with 2 shillings costs, which he considered ‘sufficient for so slight an assault’.44John Bull, 28 Feb. 1857. In 1853 he had given evidence which proved crucial to the defendant’s acquittal on a charge of cruelty to a sheep in Hyde Park.45Morning Post, 4 Aug. 1853. In 1863 he intervened on behalf of a black member of the congregation at St Peter’s, Eaton Square, who had been denied access to a pew;46The Times, 1 May 1863. the incident was raised in the House in a petition by Sir John Trelawny.47The Times, 30 Apr. 1863. In 1870 he was travelling on a train which crashed at Harrow and gave evidence about the accident to the coroner’s inquest.48Manchester Times, 3 Dec. 1870. He became a magistrate in Middlesex in 1869 and was a long-serving governor of Christ’s Hospital.49The Times, 22 June 1869; PP 1867-68 [3966-II], xxviii. 411.

A few weeks after the 1852 election Baldock had married Elizabeth Mary Corbet, the daughter of a Shropshire baronet.50The Times, 14 Aug. 1852; Morning Chronicle, 14 Aug. 1852; John Bull, 14 Aug. 1852; Gent. Mag. (1852), ii. 519. He then moved from Hyde Park Place, where his mother remained until her death in 1861,51The Era, 20 Jan. 1861. to Grosvenor Place, initially at number 31 and from 1869 at number 8.52The Times, 14 Aug. 1852; Morning Post, 4 Aug. 1853; G. de Bellaigue, ‘Edward Holmes Baldock’, Connoisseur, 189 (1975), 290. He also owned property in Piccadilly, Regent Street, Haverstock Hill and Highgate Hill.53PP 1847-48 (538), xxiv. 477, 481, 668, 673; G. de Bellaigue, ‘Edward Holmes Baldock’, Connoisseur, 189 (1975), 290. In 1875, while visiting the house of Alexander Collie he walked into a plate glass window in the conservatory and suffered severe lacerations to his leg.54F. Boase, Modern English biography (1892), i. 140. The house, 12 Kensington Palace Gardens, was open for public viewing immediately before being sold by Collie, an important textile merchant who was in difficult financial circumstances. Erysipelas set in and he died at Grosvenor Place on 15 August.55The Times, 18 Aug. 1875; Pall Mall Gazette, 18 Aug. 1875; Morning Post, 19 Aug. 1875; The Builder, 28 Aug. 1875, 785. He was buried at Buxted and also commemorated alongside other family members with a plaque at St. Pancras Church. He was survived by his wife, who died in 1894, and a son and two daughters, who inherited his estate.56Bye-gones relating to Wales and the Border counties, 2nd ser., 3 (1893-4), 454; G. de Bellaigue, ‘Edward Holmes Baldock’, Connoisseur, 189 (1975), 290. His younger daughter, Ellen Constance (known as Nellie), later married Francis Charles Needham, 3rd earl of Kilmorey, who, as Viscount Newry and Mourne, was MP for Newry, 1871-4.57The Times, 24 June 1881; Burke PB. Their great-grandson Richard Needham was a Conservative MP from 1979 to 1997. Lady Kilmorey, a favourite of Edward VII, was the mistress and legatee of Prince Francis of Teck (1870-1910), but she restored the family emeralds which she inherited from the prince to his sister, Queen Mary.58C. Carlton, Royal mistresses (1990), 131; V. Powell, Margaret, Countess of Jersey (1978), 172; D. Duff, Queen Mary (1985), 137; A. Edwards, Matriarch: Queen Mary and the House of Windsor (1984), 193; J. Pope-Hennessy, Queen Mary (1959), 323.