FITZROY, Lord Frederick John (1823-1919), of 23 Grosvenor Street, London

Fitzroy, who according to a contemporary could not ‘under any circumstances string six sentences together’, was a member of the wealthy Grafton dynasty, who held extensive estates in Norfolk and Northamptonshire.1Lord Henley to Lord Spencer, 15 May 1865, quoted in The Red Earl: the papers of the fifth Earl Spencer, 1835-1910, ed. P. Gordon (1918), i. 64; B. Falk, The royal Fitzroys: dukes of Grafton through four centuries (1950), 7, 236. He was the third son of Henry Fitzroy, the fifth duke of Grafton, who had represented Bury St. Edmunds in the pre-Reform Commons and Thetford from 1834 to 1842.2HP Commons, 1820-1832, v. 143-5. Fitzroy’s grandfather, the fourth duke, was a close confidante of William Pitt the Younger, and had been a Member for Thetford, 1782-84, then Cambridge University, 1784-1811.3Ibid., 1790-1820, iii. 766-7. Although well-connected, neither his father nor his grandfather made any discernible impact in the Commons, a trait Fitzroy was to share. Unlike his two elder brothers, Fitzroy does not appear to have attended Harrow, and at the age of seventeen he enlisted with the Grenadier Guards, whereupon he was shipped out to fight on the Syrian coast.4The journal of the Household Brigade for the year 1862 (1863) ed. I.E.A. Dolby, 61. He later served in the Crimea, where he was promoted to lieutenant-colonel in 1855, before retiring in 1862.5H.G. Hart, The new army list (1857), 52.

In April 1863 Fitzroy offered in the family interest for Thetford to replace his eldest brother William, who had succeeded to the dukedom upon their father’s death.6Bury and Norwich Post, 31 Mar. 1863. Fitzroy praised Palmerston’s leadership but insisted that he would not be a ‘thick and thin’ supporter of any man, a position his brother William had previously stressed.7Ibid., 21 Apr. 1863; Norfolk Chronicle, 11 Apr. 1863. Although a devout Anglican like his father, Fitzroy backed the abolition of church rates.8Bury and Norwich Post, 31 Mar. 1863. He stated his opposition to the secret ballot, but appeared unwilling to shed any further light on his political principles, prompting one local newspaper to suggest that his real sympathies were essentially ‘conservative’.9Norfolk Chronicle, 25 Apr. 1863. In reality, Fitzroy’s rather ambiguous political loyalties reflected the fact that Thetford’s small group of electors favoured candidates who stressed their independence. Following a brief but hard fought contest, he narrowly defeated his Conservative opponent.10Daily News, 21 Apr. 1863.

Like his father, Fiztroy was a silent member in the Commons and he is not known to have sat on any select committees. An occasional attender, he gave steadfast support to Palmerston’s ministry on most major issues and voted for radical motions to abolish church rates, 29 Apr. 1863, and reform the borough franchise, 11 May 1864, 8 May 1865. He voted for the repeal of the malt tax, 7 Mar. 1865, a stance that was strongly supported by Norfolk’s brewers and barley growers.

Following the 1865 dissolution, Fitzroy decided to vacate his seat at Thetford in order to contest Northamptonshire South, home to his family’s Wakefield estates. Now less equivocal in his support for the Liberal party, he called for a ‘moderate’ extension of the franchise and the abolition of church rates.11Northampton Mercury, 22 July 1865. He enjoyed vigorous support from the fifth Earl Spencer, who held considerable land in the region, but his eldest brother, now the sixth duke, was indifferent to the contest and declined to offer his public support.12John Beasley to Lord Spencer, 23 June 1865, The Red Earl, i. 64-5. Fitzroy was narrowly defeated in third place.13Northampton Mercury, 22 July 1865. In November 1867 he returned to Thetford to offer for a vacancy created by the resignation of the sitting member.14Pall Mall Gazette, 20 Nov. 1867. He secured the support of the local branch of the Reform League, even though its leader admitted that Fitzroy was ‘not a stump orator’, but with a number of his previous supporters having switched their allegiance to the Conservative candidate, he withdrew before the nomination.15Bury and Norwich Post, 26 Nov. 1867.

Fitzroy offered again for Northamptonshire South at the 1868 election, where he had been in the field since June of that year, only to be defeated in third place by over 200 votes.16Northampton Mercury, 25 July, 28 Nov. 1868. Thereafter he largely retired from public life. At the 1886 general election, held shortly after Gladstone had declared his support for Irish home rule, Fitzroy, according to Lady Knightley of Fawsley, voted Conservative for the first time.17Politics and society: the journals of lady Knightley of Fawsley 1885-1913, ed. P. Gordon (2004), 125.

Fitzroy died at his residence at Balcombe, Sussex, in February 1919.18Kent and Sussex Mercury, 14 Feb. 1919. He was succeeded by his only son, Evelyn (1860-1924). Fitzroy’s correspondence with the fifth Earl Spencer, which mainly concerns Northamptonshire politics, is held by the British Library, London.