FITZROY, William Henry, earl of Euston (II) (1819-1882), of 47 Clarges Street, London; Wakefield Lodge, Northamptonshire and Euston Hall, Norfolk

Euston was an archetypal Grafton. Like his ancestors, he had a passion for horseracing and was zealously committed to the hunt.1B. Falk, The royal Fitzroys: dukes of Grafton through four centuries (1950), 236. His grandfather, the fourth duke, who had enjoyed great success on the turf, had briefly represented Thetford before coming in for Cambridge University in 1784, and though initially a Tory, he had become a steadfast supporter of the Whigs by the time he succeeded to the dukedom in 1811.2HP Commons, 1790-1820, iii. 767-8. Euston’s father, the fifth duke, who had sat twice for Bury St. Edmunds in the pre-Reform era and for Thetford from 1834 to 1842, was something of an anomaly in the family.3Ibid., 1820-1832, v. 143-5. He cared little for horseracing and instead, as a deeply committed Anglican, devoted his life to church-going.4Falk, Royal Fitzroys, 236. The fourth and fifth duke, though, did share one trait: they made little impact in the Commons and rarely spoke in debate. In this respect, Euston, after a perfunctory career in the diplomatic service, followed in their footsteps.

At the 1847 general election Euston was put up on the family interest for Thetford, a small borough on the edge of their extensive Norfolk and Suffolk estates. In 1842 his father’s return for the borough at the previous year’s general election had been declared void, bringing to an end thirty-six uninterrupted years of representation by a member of the Grafton dynasty.5Bury and Norwich Post, 7 July 1841; PP 1842 (548), v. 25. With his father’s vanquisher, Sir James Flower, retiring at the dissolution, the path was clear for Euston’s unopposed return. At the nomination he declared that, while he hoped corn law repeal would prove to be a success, he ‘was by no means an advocate for a general system of free trade’ and he ‘did not think, because they had free trade in one thing, they should in everything’.6Bury and Norwich Post, 4 Aug. 1847. Although, like his father, Euston was a member of the established church, he championed the extension of religious liberties, calling for the inclusion of Jews and Roman Catholics in the system of parliamentary grants for education, and backing the maintenance of the Maynooth grant.7Ibid.

Euston attended the Commons infrequently and is not known to have sat on any select committees during his sixteen year tenure as Member for Thetford.8In the 1849 session Euston was present for 19 out of 219 divisions; in 1853, 37 out of 257; and in 1856, 26 out of 198: Hampshire 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 of the House of Commons during the last session of Parliament (1857), 13. Although he had been elected ostensibly as a Whig, his distrust of free trade policies led him to occasionally divide with the Conservative opposition. He was in minorities for Sir John Pakington’s motion censuring government policy on the sugar duties, 29 June 1848; against the repeal of the navigation laws, 23 Apr. 1849; for a resolution for the Commons to consider agricultural distress, 21 Feb. 1850; and for Disraeli’s motion to relieve the distress of land owners, 13 Feb. 1851. Despite his earlier vocal support for the extension of religious liberties, he opposed Lord John’s Russell’s plan for the removal of Jewish disabilities, 17 Dec. 1847.

At the 1852 general election Euston was equivocal on the policy of free trade and gave lukewarm support to an extension of the franchise.9Daily News, 10 July 1852. Returned unopposed, he voted against Charles Villiers’s motion praising corn law repeal, but backed Palmerston’s subsequent motion in favour of free trade principles, 26 Nov. 1852. He opposed Disraeli’s budget, 16 Dec. 1852, supported Gladstone’s alternative economic proposals, 2 May 1853, and thereafter followed the Whigs into the division lobby on most financial matters, including in opposition to Disraeli’s motion to abolish income tax in 1860, 23 Feb. 1857. He was absent from all the major divisions concerning the prosecution of the Crimean War. He was against the abolition of church rates, 16 May 1855, and divided with Palmerston in opposition to Cobden’s censure motion concerning the events at Canton, 3 Mar. 1857.

Returned unopposed at the 1857 general election, Euston justified his vote on the Chinese question, explaining that, while he deplored the ‘extreme measures’ the British authorities had taken at Canton, Palmerston was the right leader ‘for the present exigencies of the State’.10The Times, 21 Mar. 1857; Norfolk Chronicle, 4 Apr. 1857. He was absent, though, from the critical division on Palmerston’s conspiracy to murder bill, 19 Feb. 1858, and, in another vote that reflected his independent streak, he supported the Derby ministry’s reform bill, 31 Mar. 1859. Displeased at this vote, a section of the Thetford electorate sought to bring forward their own Liberal candidate at the subsequent general election, but their efforts came to nothing and Euston was returned without a contest for the fourth consecutive time.11Daily News, 25 Apr. 1859; Bury and Norwich Post, 3 May 1859.

Euston voted for the Liberal amendment to the address, 10 June 1859, and on the rare occasions on which he troubled the division lobbies thereafter, he supported Palmerston’s third administration. He voted for the abolition of church rates, 14 May 1862, having previously opposed the measure.

Euston succeeded as the sixth duke of Grafton on his father’s death in March 1863. In his farewell address to Thetford’s electors, he stated that:

Unpledged to any particular party, though favouring Liberal views, it has been my wish to frame my conduct rather according to the measures themselves, than to the party who promoted them.12Norfolk Chronicle, 11 Apr. 1863.

He also succeeded to the mastership of the Grafton hounds in Northamptonshire, remaining an avid huntsman for the rest of his life.13J. M. K. Elliott, Fifty Years’ Fox-hunting with the Grafton and Other Packs of Hounds (1900), 87-89. He likewise indulged his passion for horseracing, resurrecting the scarlet livery favoured by his grandfather, and in 1876 he converted his London ancestral home of 47 Clarges Street into the headquarters of the Turf club.14Falk, Royal Fitzroys, 236.

Grafton died at his London residence at Grosvenor Place in May 1882 following a short bout of typhoid.15The Times, 22 May 1882. He was remembered as a ‘kind and liberal landlord’.16Elliott, Fifty Years’ Fox-hunting, 87. In his memory, his widow, Marie, donated £1,000 to St. Andrew’s Hospital, Northampton, of which he had been chairman since 1870.17A. Foss and K. L. K. Trick, St Andrew’s Hospital, Northampton, the first 150 years, 1838-1988 (1989), 198. His marriage having produced no children, Grafton was succeeded in his title and estates by his younger brother Augustus, a Crimean War veteran.18The Times, 22 May 1882. The family papers and correspondence are held by the Suffolk Record Office.19Suffolk RO, Grafton Mss.