Aubrey Beauclerk, 5th Duke of St Albans

His Grace
The Duke of St Albans
The Hon. Aubrey Beauclerk (centre) and family (by Franciszek Smuglevicz)
Member of the Great Britain Parliament
for Thetford
In office
1761–1768
Preceded by
Succeeded by
Member of the Great Britain Parliament
for Aldborough
In office
1768–1774
Serving with
Preceded by
Succeeded by
Personal details
Born(1740-06-03)3 June 1740
Died9 February 1802(1802-02-09) (aged 61)
Resting placeSt George's Church, Hanworth, England
Spouse
​
​
(m. 1763; died 1789)​
Children
Parent

Aubrey Beauclerk, 5th Duke of St Albans (3 June 1740 – 9 February 1802), was a British peer and landowner, as well as a collector of antiquities and works of art.[1]

Early life

Born in 1740, the son of Admiral Vere Beauclerk, 1st Baron Vere (third son of Charles Beauclerk, 1st Duke of St Albans), and Mary Chambers (eldest daughter and co-heiress of Thomas Chambers, son of Sir Thomas Chambers of Hanworth Park, Middlesex),[2] he was educated at Westminster School before going up to Queen's College, Oxford.

Career

From 1761 to 1768, the Hon. Aubrey Beauclerk served as Member of Parliament for Thetford and, from 1768 to 1774, as MP for Aldborough.

In 1778, he and his wife embarked on a Grand Tour, following rumours in the press concerning Lady Catherine Beauclerk's relationship with the MP Thomas Brand. Brand accompanied the Beauclerks to Rome, abandoning his own wife and children.[3]

In 1779, Beauclerk financed an excavation with Thomas Jenkins at Centocelle, which discovered several ancient sculptures. To celebrate this successful excavation Beauclerk commissioned Franciszek Smuglewicz to paint a portrait of him and his family at the Roman site (a painting now at Cheltenham Art Gallery). Some sculptures were sold to Giovanni Battista Visconti for the Museo Pio-Clementino in the Vatican and others to the British art collector, Henry Blundell, with many being displayed at Beauclerk's Hanworth House by 1783. While in Italy Beauclerk also bought several paintings.

In 1781 when in Germany, Beauclerk succeeded his father as the 2nd Baron Vere, then in 1787, on the death of his unmarried cousin, as the 5th Duke of St Albans.[2] He inherited Hanworth in 1781 which, five years after inheriting the dukedom, was leased to James Ramsay Cuthbert (who bought the estate after his death).[4]

St Albans, disposing of some antiquities at sales in 1798 and 1801, was a major purchaser at the 1801 sale of his father-in-law's collection.

Personal life

Portrait of Lady Catherine Beauclerk (by Thomas Gainsborough)

On 4 May 1763 the Hon. Aubrey Beauclerk married Lady Catherine Ponsonby (1742–1789), elder daughter of the Anglo-Irish politician William Ponsonby, 2nd Earl of Bessborough,[5] and Lady Caroline Cavendish (eldest daughter of William Cavendish, 3rd Duke of Devonshire).[2] Together, the Hon. Aubrey and Lady Catherine Beauclerk were parents of seven children:[2]

The 5th Duke of St Albans died in 1802, and is buried at St George's Church, Hanworth.[6]

See also

References

  1. ^ I. Bignamini, Digging And Dealing in Eighteenth-Century Rome (2010), p.236-237
  2. ^ a b c d e f g h i "St Albans, Duke of (E, 1683/4)". www.cracroftspeerage.co.uk. Heraldic Media Limited. Archived from the original on 3 June 2011. Retrieved 20 September 2019.
  3. ^ www.grandtour.amdigital.co.uk
  4. ^ www.burkespeerage.com
  5. ^ "PONSONBY, William, Visct. Duncannon (c.1704-93)". www.historyofparliamentonline.org. History of Parliament Online. Retrieved 20 September 2019.
  6. ^ "St George's Church - History". St George's Church, Hanworth. Retrieved 2 February 2015.

Further reading

  • Donald Adamson and Peter Beauclerk Dewar, The House of Nell Gwyn. The Fortunes of the Beauclerk Family, 1670-1974, London: William Kimber, 1974
allikas: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Aubrey_Beauclerk,_5th_Duke_of_St_Albans