Frederick Stewart, 4th Marquess of Londonderry

The Most Honourable
The Marquess of Londonderry
KP PC
Frederick William Robert Stewart, 4th Marquess of Londonderry KP, PC (1805 – 1872), Viscount Castlereagh (1822-1854) (Simon Jacques Rochard, 1833)
Vice-Chamberlain of the Household
In office
29 December 1834 – 8 April 1835
Monarch William IV
Prime Minister Sir Robert Peel, Bt
Preceded by The Earl of Belfast
Succeeded by Lord Charles FitzRoy
Personal details
Born 7 July 1805
Grosvenor Square, Mayfair, London
Died 25 November 1872 (1872-11-26) (aged 67)
White Rock Pavilion, Hastings, Sussex
Nationality British
Political party Tory
Spouse(s) Lady Elizabeth Jocelyn
(1813–1884)
Parents Charles Stewart, 3rd Marquess of Londonderry
Lady Catherine Bligh

Frederick William Robert Stewart, 4th Marquess of Londonderry KP PC (7 July 1805 – 25 November 1872), styled Viscount Castlereagh between 1822 and 1854, was a British nobleman and Tory politician. He was briefly Vice-Chamberlain of the Household under Sir Robert Peel between December 1834 and April 1835.

Background and education

Frederick Stewart was born the 7 July 1805 at Grosvenor Square, Mayfair, London, the eldest son of Charles Stewart, by his first wife Lady Catherine Bligh, daughter of John Bligh, 3rd Earl of Darnley. His mother died when he was seven and while his father was serving in the army overseas. Stewart was looked after by his uncle and aunt, Lord and Lady Castlereagh. He went to Eton in 1814, where he stayed until 1820. After his father succeeded to the marquessate of Londonderry in 1822, Frederick Stewart became known by the courtesy title Viscount Castlereagh.

Political career

Lord Castlereagh sat as Member of Parliament for County Down from 1826 to 1852.[1] He served under the Duke of Wellington as a Lord of the Admiralty from 1828 to 1830 and under Sir Robert Peel as Vice-Chamberlain of the Household from December 1834[2] to April 1835. On 23 February 1835 he was sworn of the Privy Council.[3] He was one of the Members of Parliament for County Down from 1826 until 1852. From 1845 until 1864 he was Lord Lieutenant of Down. In 1856 he was made a Knight of the Order of St Patrick.

Personal life

Frederick Stewart at Mount Sinai in May 1842

In 1838, Count Gérard de Melcy, the husband of the Italian operatic singer Giulia Grisi, discovered a letter written to Giulia by Frederick Stewart, and the two men fought a duel on 16 June of that year. Lord Castlereagh was wounded in the wrist; the Count was uninjured. After the duel, Grisi left her husband and began an affair with Lord Castlereagh. Their son, George Frederick Ormsby (1838–1901), was born in November 1838 and brought up by his father.

By 1852, he "had fallen out with his father, the 3rd Marquess of Londonderry over their views on the land question [and] was obliged to retire because of these differences".[4] Frederick Stewart married Lady Elizabeth Frances Charlotte Jocelyn, widow of Viscount Powerscourt and daughter of Robert Jocelyn, 3rd Earl of Roden, at the British Embassy in Paris on 2 May 1846. There were no children from the marriage. In 1855 his wife converted to Roman Catholicism.[5]

He succeeded his father in 1854 as the 4th Marquess of Londonderry. He built Scrabo Tower as a monument to the memory of his father.[6] In 1857 he and his wife attended the ceremony of the laying of the foundation stone.[7]

Frederick Stewart as Marquess of Londonderry. The background on the left shows the view from Mount Stewart over the Strangford Lough at the Scrabo Tower on its hill.

He died at the White Rock Pavilion (this was almost certainly White Rock Villa as the White Rock Pavilion, now called the White Rock Theatre, wasn't built until 1927) in Hastings in November 1872, aged 67, and was succeeded in the marquessate by his half-brother, George Vane-Tempest, 2nd Earl Vane. The Marchioness of Londonderry died on 2 September 1884, aged 70, and was buried with him in Newtownards.

Ancestry

References

  1. ↑ Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "D" (part 3)
  2. ↑ "No. 19225". The London Gazette. 30 December 1834. p. 2348.
  3. ↑ "No. 19243". The London Gazette. 24 February 1835. p. 334.
  4. ↑ Brian Walker, 'Landowners and Parliamentary Elections in County Down, 1801–1921' PP 307–8 in Lindsay Proudfoot, 'Down – History and Society', Geography Publications, 1997
  5. ↑ Gorman, Converts to Rome 4th edition (1899)
  6. ↑ Hyde, Harford Montgomery (1979). The Londonderrys - A Family Portrait. London: Hamish Hamilton. p. 50. ISBN 0241101530. At the same time her husband constructed the great tower on Scrabo Hill overlooking the town in his father's memory.
  7. ↑ "Memorial To The Late Marquis Of Londonderry". The Illustrated London News (March 28 1857). p. 300.
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Lord Arthur Hill
Mathew Forde		 Member of Parliament for Down
1826–1852
With: Lord Arthur Hill 1826–36
Earl of Hillsborough 1836–45
Lord Edwin Hill 1845–52		 Succeeded by
Lord Edwin Hill
David Stewart Ker
Political offices
Preceded by
The Earl of Belfast		 Vice-Chamberlain of the Household
1834–1835		 Succeeded by
Lord Charles FitzRoy
Honorary titles
Preceded by
The Marquess of Downshire		 Lord Lieutenant of Down
1845–1864		 Succeeded by
The Lord Dufferin and Claneboye
Peerage of Ireland
Preceded by
Charles William Vane		 Marquess of Londonderry
1854–1872		 Succeeded by
George Vane-Tempest

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