Richard Godolphin Long

Richard Godolphin Long (2 October 1761 – 1 July 1835)[1] was an English banker and Tory politician.

For other people named Richard Long, see Richard Long (disambiguation).

Life and career

Baptised at West Lavington, Wiltshire a month after his birth, he was the son of Richard Long (d. 1787)[2] and his wife Meliora, descendant of Sir John Lambe.[3]

By 1800, Long was a partner in the Melksham Bank, together with his younger brother John Long, John Awdry and Thomas Bruges.[4] In 1799, he purchased Steeple Ashton Manor House and farm,[5] which remained in the family until 1967, and commissioned architect Jeffry Wyattville to build Rood Ashton House nearby in 1808.[6]

He was appointed High Sheriff of Wiltshire for 1794. Long entered the House of Commons in 1806, sitting for Wiltshire until 1818.[1] He was the founder of the Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry.[7]

Family

On 28 March 1786, he married Florentina Wrey, third daughter of Sir Bourchier Wrey, 6th Baronet,[2] and had by her four daughters and two sons.[8] After a lingering illness Long died aged 73, at Rood Ashton House, six weeks after his wife, and was interred in the family's crypt at St Mary's Church, Steeple Ashton.[2]

His older son Walter was also a member of parliament, representing North Wiltshire.[9] His second daughter Florentina (Flora), having been previously engaged to Henry Cobbe (uncle of Frances Power Cobbe), who had died the day before the proposed marriage,[10] formed a strong attachment to the then-elderly poet George Crabbe.[11] Flora and her aunts were frequent visitors of novelist Jane Austen, who referred to Flora as her 'cousin', though their exact relationship is not known.[12] Austen never met Crabbe, but nursed a fantasy of becoming his wife.[13]

Further reading

Notes
  1. "Leigh Rayment – British House of Commons, Wiltshire". Retrieved 28 July 2009.
  2. Sylvanus, Urban (September 1835). The Gentleman's Magazine. part II. London: John Bowyer Nichols and Son. p. 324.
  3. The Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine, p. 106
  4. "Wiltshire County Council – Archive Catalogue". Retrieved 29 July 2009.
  5. "Victoria County History: Wiltshire: Vol 8 pp198-218 – Steeple Ashton". British History Online. University of London. 1965. Retrieved 9 March 2020.
  6. "Lyneham Village, Official Website – History". Archived from the original on 5 February 2013. Retrieved 28 July 2009.
  7. "ThePeerage – Richard Godolphin Long". Retrieved 23 January 2007.
  8. Burke, John (1838). A Genealogical and Heraldic History of The Commoners of Great Britain and Ireland. vol. IV. London: Henry Colburn. p. 65.
  9. Sylvanus, Urban (1867). The Gentleman's Magazine. part I. London: Bradbury, Evans & Co. p. 399.
  10. Mitchell, Sally (2004). Frances Power Cobbe: Victorian Feminist, Journalist, Reformer. Henry Colburn and Richard Bentley. ISBN 0-8139-2271-2.
  11. Alexander Meyrick Broadley, Walter Jerrold, George Crabbe (1913). The Romance of an Elderly Poet: A Hitherto Unknown Chapter in the Life of George Crabbe, Revealed by his 10 Years Correspondence with Elizabeth Charter 1815–1825. London: Stanley Paul & Co.CS1 maint: uses authors parameter (link)
  12. "Jane Austen Society of North America – Letter to Her Sister Cassandra, 29 May 1809, by Edward, Lord Braybourne". Retrieved 28 July 2009.
  13. Powell, Neill (2004). George Crabbe: An English Life – 1754–1832. ISBN 0-7126-8999-0.

References
  • The Wiltshire Archaeological and Natural History Magazine. vol. III. Devizes: Henry Bull. 1857.
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by
Henry Penruddocke Wyndham
Ambrose Goddard		 Member of Parliament for Wiltshire
1806–1818
With: Henry Penruddocke Wyndham 1806–1812
Paul Methuen 1812–1818		 Succeeded by
William Pole-Tylney-Long-Wellesley
Paul Methuen
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