Regency Villains: Lord Huntingtower

Okay, so maybe it’s a little hyberbolic to call someone’s ancestor from 200 years ago a villain. But the man definitely did villainous acts. Like ripped out of the pages of historical romance where readers would raise skeptical eyebrows. Maybe its rose-colored glasses, sentimentality, or our tendency to almost infantilize people in the past? But I digress.  Because I want to serve this piping hot 200 year old tea.

I suppose that makes it ice cold. Anyway, whether old gossip or new inspiration, I think Lord Huntingtower was a fascinating character.

I stumbled upon Lord Huntingtower looking for something completely different, and then I had to keep digging because this story was wild.  Follow my rabbit trail:

My interest was piqued, so then I searched some more and found this:

Walton, R. (1873). Random Recollections of the Midland Circuit. United Kingdom: author at the Chiswick Press.

But I needed to know more. Especially about the bad charactered woman and her naked parade. So I found this:

 

The Annual Register, Or, A View of the History, Politics, and Literature for the Year …. (1830). United Kingdom: J. Dodsley.

I have subsequently done a bunch more research about Lord Huntingtower, because I wanted to better understand the character of a man who would do something so nutty. Neighbor disputes happen frequently, even leading up to violence, but this seemed over the limit for a man whose obituary would speak of him as a great, if peculiar gentleman:

“LORD HUNTINGTOWER. His Lordship was the oldest heir-apparent in the Peerage of Great Britain. He some years ago experienced a severe attack of paralysis, which, without impairing his mental faculties, deprived him of the use of his lower extremities. Since this period he led a life of seclusion, except as regarded the management and improvement of his large estates, to which he gave unremitting and constant attention. It was his daily practice to drive out in his carriage to witness the progress of the numerous workmen employed on the property surrounding Buckminster, with whom he usually continued several hours. On Thursday, the 7th instant, as he was returning to dinner, he was suddenly seized with apoplexy. An express was immediately dispatched to the nearest surgeon, Mr. Barber, of Coltersworth, and, subsequently, to Dr. Turner, of Grantham, Mr. Wing, of Knipton, and Dr. Arnold, of Leicester, who were prompt in giving their attendance, and rendering every exertion the case admitted. On Saturday Sir H. Halford reached Buckminster, and was joined in the medical consultation. All human aid, however, proved unavailing. The Noble Sufferer lingered till Monday, with occasional glimpses of consciousness, when death closed the scene of his earthly sufferings. 

Lord Huntingtower was the eldest son of John Manners, Esq. (eldest son of Lord William Manners, the son of John, second Duke of Rutland), and Louisa, present Countess of Dysart, who still survives, at a very advanced age, one of the most extraordinary women of the day. He was brother to the three celebrated beauties, Louisa, late Duchess of St. Alban’s; Lady Sophia Heathcote; and the Hon. Mrs. Duff, wife of the present Earl of Fife, the circumstances of whose death created so great a sensation in the fashionable world many years ago. He stood in the same degree of relationship to the Hon. John Tollemache, who became united in 1806 to Mary, Duchess of Roxburghe; to Charles Tollemache, Esq., married to the granddaughter of Luke Viscount Mountjoy, and to Lady Laura Tollemache, who formed an alliance with John Dalrymple, seventh Earl of Stair, which marriage was dissolved in 1809, in consequence of a previous contract in Scotland, on the part of the Earl, with Miss Gordon, which contract was set aside by the Lords of Session at Edinburgh in 1820. His Lordship whilst retaining the paternal name of Manners was created a Baronet on the 5th January, 1793. On his mother succeeding to the honours of her family at the decease of her brother, Wilbraham, Earl of Dysart, in 1821, he became Lord Huntingtower, and assumed, by Royal permission, the name of Tollemache only. His Lordship, in 1790, married Catherine Rebecca, daughter of Francis Grey, Esq., of Lehena, in the county of Cork, by whom he leaves a surviving family of six sons and five daughters. Mr. Algernon Tollemache, his youngest son, was lately elected Member of Parliament for Grantham. 

Lord Huntingtower’s death will be deeply regretted by a numerous body of servants and retainers. He was an indulgent and kind master ; and when we state that his princely income was chiefly spent in the immediate neighbourhood of his residence, and amongst the middle and lower classes of society, it may be imagined his loss is not regarded guarded in the light of an ordinary occurrence. To illustrate our opinion we shall only state one fact, viz., that in the severe winters of 1828 and 1829 he gave employment to not less than 528 labourers in the vicinity of Buckminster. 

Though occasionally exhibiting peculiar eccentricities of conduct Lord Huntingtower possessed singular tact in estimating the characters of all with whom he came in contact, joined to uncommon shrewdness and ability in the every-day concerns of life. His genealogical and heraldic knowledge was of an extraordinary and diffusive character, from the retentiveness of his memory and its constituting a favourite branch of his constant study.

His Lordship’s eldest son, the Hon. Lionel William John Manners Tollemache, succeeds to the title of Huntingtower, and to the very large paternal estates of the family. His Lordship also becomes next in succession to the Earldom of Dysart. He was born in 1794, and married Miss Toone, daughter of Colonel Toone, by whom he has one son, aged 13. The very ancient family of Tollemache claims Saxon descent, and the name is said to be a corruption of the Saxon word “tollmack,” tolling of the bell. The Tollemaches have flourished with the greatest honour in an uninterrupted male succession in the county of Suffolk since the first arrival of the Saxons in England, a period of more than thirteen centuries. Tollemache, Lord of Bentley, in Suffolk, and Stoke Tollemache, in the county of Oxford, lived in the sixth century ; and upon the old manor-house at Bentley (which the family occupied previous to the magnificent seat at Helmingham coming into their possession) may still be seen the following inscription : * Before the Normans into England came Bentley was my seat, and Tollemache was my name.” Morning Post – Monday 18 March 1833

The gentleman was involved, as he alluded to in his threats against Reverend Trimmer, in other litigation, seemingly related to disputes in Grantham about property lines:

Drakard’s Stamford News – Friday 19 October 1832

I found another case, Langdon v. Lord Huntingtower, where one of Trimmer’s pupils sued him for libellous remarks about unproven allegations about participation in a riot (Shrewsbury Chronicle – Friday 20 August 1830) where ultimately the pupil was awarded 1k.

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Lord Huntingtower was the oldest child of the 7th Countess of Dysart, Louisa Manners.  I had  heard of Louisa Manners when researching and writing my book:

because she was fond of attending and throwing masquerade balls, like this one in July 1805:

Morning Post – Monday 22 July 1805

Louisa had a fascinating life story, herself:

Evans, H. (1879). Our Old Nobility. By Noblesse Oblige [pseud.].. United Kingdom: Political Tract Society.

There, in the recollections of Mr. Evans is the suggestion that the family wealth had a lot to do with confiscating Church lands. I suspect his battle with Reverend Trimmer had something to do with family history.

Louisa eloped with John Manners, a bastard, in 1765 via Scotland after throwing the key to the garden door over the wall so she could not return. Her father patched up the scandal by insisting a follow up wedding at St. James. Manners was fifteen years Louisa’s senior, and was MP for Neward in Nottinghamshire at the time. Mr. Manners would eventually inherit Hanby Hall and Buckmister from his father, where Lord Huntingtower would subsequently terrorize schoolchildren.

William Tollemache, Lord Huntingtower’s own son would continue the scandal, going into bankruptcy. He was eventually a Tory politician, and would succeed his grandmother into the earldom, becoming the 8th Earl of Dysart.

Such an interesting rabbit hole to fall into, with drama, lawsuits, nude women and libellous advertisements, an anvil marriage, and bankruptcy.