George Howard, 7th Earl of Carlisle

George William Frederick Howard, 7th Earl of Carlisle, KG, KP, PC (18 April 1802 – 5 December 1864), styled Viscount Morpeth from 1825 to 1848, was a British statesman, orator, and writer.


The Earl of Carlisle

Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
In office
6 March 1850  21 February 1852
MonarchVictoria
Prime MinisterLord John Russell
Preceded byThe Lord Campbell
Succeeded byRobert Adam Christopher
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland
In office
7 March 1855  8 March 1858
MonarchVictoria
Prime MinisterThe Viscount Palmerston
Preceded byThe Earl of St Germans
Succeeded byThe Earl of Eglinton
In office
24 June 1859  1 November 1864
MonarchVictoria
Prime MinisterThe Viscount Palmerston
Preceded byThe Earl of Eglinton
Succeeded byThe Lord Wodehouse
Personal details
Born(1802-04-18)18 April 1802
Berkeley Square, Westminster
Died5 December 1864(1864-12-05) (aged 62)
Castle Howard, Yorkshire
NationalityBritish
Political partyLiberal
Alma materChrist Church, Oxford

Life

Carlisle was born in Westminster, London, the eldest son of George Howard, 6th Earl of Carlisle by his wife Lady Georgiana Cavendish, eldest daughter of William Cavendish, 5th Duke of Devonshire. Lord Lanerton and Charles Howard were his younger brothers. He was educated at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, where he earned a reputation as a scholar and writer of graceful verse, obtaining in 1821 both the chancellor's and the Newdigate prizes for a Latin poem, Paestum,[1] and an English one. He maintained his interest in poetry throughout his life, exchanging sonnets with William Wordsworth. In 1826 he accompanied his maternal grandfather, the Duke of Devonshire, to the Russian Empire, to attend the coronation of Tsar Nicholas I, and became a great favourite in society at St Petersburg.[2]

At the general election in 1826 Carlisle was returned to parliament as member for the family borough of Morpeth (in Northumberland), a seat he held until 1830, and then represented Yorkshire until 1832 and the West Riding of Yorkshire from 1832 to 1841 and from 1846 to 1848. The latter year he succeeded his father in the earldom and entered the House of Lords.[3]

Carlisle served under Lord Melbourne as Chief Secretary for Ireland between 1835 and 1841, under Lord John Russell as First Commissioner of Woods and Forests from 1846 to 1850 and as Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster from 1850 to 1852 and under Lord Palmerston as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland from 1855 to 1858 and again from 1859 to 1864.[4] In 1835 he was appointed to the Privy Councils of the United Kingdom and Ireland. He served as a Lord in Waiting to the Queen's mother, the Duchess of Kent at the coronation of Queen Victoria in 1838. [5]

On 2 April 1853, he was given the Freedom of the City of Edinburgh,[6] and in 1855, he was made a Knight of the Garter.[7]

In the six weeks after he stepped down as Chief Secretary of Ireland in 1841, the signatures of 160,000 men and women who appreciated his service were gathered on 652 sheets of paper and stuck together, creating the Morpeth Roll, a continuous roll measuring 420 metres.[8]

Lord Carlisle died unmarried at Castle Howard in December 1864, aged 62, and was buried in the family mausoleum. He was succeeded in the earldom by his younger brother, Reverend William George Howard.[9]

Legacy

On Bulmer Hill, about a mile from Bulmer village in North Yorkshire, is the Carlisle Memorial Column,[1] erected by public subscription to his memory in 1869–70. It is inscribed:

AD MDCCCLXIX: IN PRIVATE LIFE WAS LOVED
BY ALL WHO KNEW HIM
BY HIS PUBLIC CONDUCT
WON the RESPECT of his COUNTRY
and LEFT THE BRIGHT EXAMPLE
OF A TRVE PATRIOT
AND EARNEST CHRISTIAN
VIIth EARL of CARLISLE

Statues of him by the Irish sculptor John Henry Foley were also erected in Phoenix Park, Dublin, and in Brampton, Carlisle in Cumbria, both in 1870. The statue in Brampton stands on Brampton motte and depicts him in the robes of a Knight of the Garter.[10] The statue in Phoenix Park stood in the Peoples' Garden until 1956, when it was blown off its plinth in an explosion, and subsequently removed to Castle Howard in Yorkshire.[11] The plinth it once stood on remains in place.

Notes

  1. 'The Pride of Yorkshire', leaflet for exhibition on George Howard, Castle Howard, 2010
  2. EB (1911), p. 340.
  3. EB (1911), pp. 340–341.
  4. EB (1911), p. 341.
  5. "Key to Mr Leslie's picture of Queen Victoria receiving the Holy Sacrament at her Coronation". National Portrait Gallery.
  6. Gilbert, W.M., Edinburgh in the Nineteenth Century, Edinburgh, 1901: 124
  7. "Howard, George William Frederick", Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900, Volume 28, retrieved 3 February 2021
  8. Christopher Ridgway, editor. 'The Morpeth Roll – Ireland identified in 1841’ (Four Courts, 2013).
  9. EB (1878), p. 110.
  10. "Howard Monument". Old Cumbria Gazetteer. Retrieved 6 November 2018.
  11. "Carlisle Monument, Peoples' Garden, Phoenix Park". Buildings of Ireland. Retrieved 6 November 2018.

References

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
William Ord
Hon. William Howard
Member of Parliament for Morpeth
1826–1830
With: William Ord
Succeeded by
William Ord
Hon. William Howard
Preceded by
Viscount Milton
William Duncombe
Richard Fountayne-Wilson
John Marshall
Member of Parliament for Yorkshire
1830–1832
With: William Duncombe 1830–1831
Henry Brougham 1830
Richard Bethell 1830–1831
Sir John Vanden-Bempde-Johnstone, Bt 1830–1832
George Strickland 1831–1832
John Charles Ramsden 1831–1832
constituency divided
New constituency Member of Parliament for the West Riding of Yorkshire
1832–1841
With: Sir George Strickland, Bt
Succeeded by
Hon. John Stuart-Wortley-Mackenzie
Edmund Beckett Denison
Preceded by
Hon. John Stuart-Wortley-Mackenzie
Edmund Beckett Denison
Member of Parliament for the West Riding of Yorkshire
1846–1848
With: Edmund Beckett Denison 1846–1847
Richard Cobden 1847–1848
Succeeded by
Richard Cobden
Edmund Beckett Denison
Political offices
Preceded by
Sir Henry Hardinge
Chief Secretary for Ireland
1835–1841
Succeeded by
Lord Eliot
Preceded by
The Earl Canning
First Commissioner of Woods and Forests
1846–1850
Succeeded by
Lord Seymour
Preceded by
The Lord Campbell
Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster
1850–1852
Succeeded by
Robert Adam Christopher
Preceded by
The Earl of St Germans
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland
1855–1858
Succeeded by
The Earl of Eglinton
Preceded by
The Earl of Eglinton
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland
1859–1864
Succeeded by
The Lord Wodehouse
Academic offices
Preceded by
The Earl of Eglinton
Rector of Marischal College, Aberdeen
1853–54
Succeeded by
William Henry Sykes
Honorary titles
Preceded by
The Lord Wenlock
Lord Lieutenant of the East Riding of Yorkshire
1847–1864
Succeeded by
The Lord Wenlock
Peerage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
George Howard
Earl of Carlisle
1848–1864
Succeeded by
William George Howard
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