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CHARLES PHILIP YORKE
FOURTH EARL OF HARDWICKE
VICE-ADMIRAL R.N.
A MEMOIR
BY HIS DAUGHTER
THE LADY BIDDULPH OF LEDBURY
WITH PORTRAITS
DEDICATED
TO HIS GRANDCHILDREN
PREFACE
It is with great diffidence that I lay this memoir before the public;
it is my first experience in such work, but my reasons for so doing
appear to me unanswerable. It was to my care and judgment that my
father, by his will, committed his letters and journals, and my heart
confirms the judgment of my mind, that his active and interesting life,
so varied in the many different positions he was called upon to fill,
and the considerable part he played in the affairs of his time, deserve
a fuller record than the accounts to be found in biographical works of
reference.
It has been a labour of love to me to supply these omissions in the
following pages, and to present in outline the life of a capable,
energetic Englishman, for whom I can at least claim that he was a loyal
and devoted servant of his Sovereign and his country.
In fulfilling what I hold to be a filial obligation I have made no
attempt to give literary form to a work which, so far as possible, is
based upon my father's own words. Primarily it is addressed to his
grandchildren and great-grandchildren, to whom, I trust, it may serve
as an inspiration; but I have also some hope that a story which touches
the national life at so many points may prove of interest to the
general public. I am greatly indebted to my son, Mr. Adeane, and to my
son-in-law, Mr. Bernard Mallet, for the help and encouragement they
have given me; and I have also to acknowledge the assistance of Mr. W.
B. Boulton in editing and preparing these papers for publication.
ELIZABETH PHILIPPA BIDDULPH.
LEDBURY: January 1910.
CONTENTS
I. THE YORKE FAMILY
II. ALGIERS. 1815-1816
III. THE NORTH AMERICAN STATION. 1817-1822
IV. GREEK PIRACY. 1823-1826
V. A HOLIDAY IN NORTHERN REGIONS. 1828
VI. GREEK INDEPENDENCE. 1829-1831
VII. COURT DUTIES AND POLITICS. 1831-1847
VIII. GENOA. 1849
IX. POLITICS AND LAST YEARS. 1850-1873
INDEX
LIST OF PORTRAITS
CHARLES PHILIP, FOURTH EARL OF HARDWICKE From a painting by E. U. Eddis
THE HONBLE. CHARLES YORKE SOLICITOR-GENERAL From a painting by Allan
Ramsay (?)
SIR JOSEPH SYDNEY YORKE As A MIDSHIPMAN, R.N. From a painting by George
Romney
SIR JOSEPH SYDNEY YORKE As A LIEUTENANT, R.N. from a painting by George
Romney
CHARLES PHILIP, FOURTH EARL OF HARDWICKE From a chalk drawing by E. U.
Eddis
SUSAN, COUNTESS OF HARDWICKE From a chalk drawing by E. U. Eddis
CHARLES PHILIP YORKE
FOURTH EARL OF HARDWICKE
CHAPTER I
THE YORKE FAMILY
The family of Yorke first came into prominence with the great
Chancellor Philip Yorke, first Earl of Hardwicke. This remarkable man,
who was the son of an attorney at Dover, descended, it is claimed, from
the Yorkes of Hannington in North Wiltshire, a family of some
consequence in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, was born in that
town in the year 1690, and rose from a comparatively humble station to
the commanding position he held so long in English public life.
My object in this chapter is to recall some of the incidents of his
career and of those of his immediate successors and descendants.
Philip Yorke was called to the bar in 1715, became Solicitor-General
only five years later, and was promoted to be Attorney-General in 1723.
In 1733 he was appointed Lord Chief Justice of England, and received
the Great Seal as Lord Chancellor in 1737, and when his life closed his
political career had extended over a period of fifty years.
Lord Campbell, the author of the 'Lives of the Chancellors,' 'that
extraordinary work which was held to have added a new terror to death,
and a fear of which was said to have kept at least one Lord Chancellor
alive,' claimed to lay bare the shortcomings of the subjects of his
memoirs with the same impartiality with which he pointed out their
excellences. He mentions only two failings of Lord Chancellor
Hardwicke: one, that he was fond of acquiring wealth, the other, that
he was of an overweening pride to those whom he considered beneath him.
Neither of these is a very serious charge, and as both are
insufficiently corroborated, one may let them pass. He acquired immense
wealth in the course of his professional career, but in an age of
corruption he was remarked for his integrity, and was never suspected
or accused of prostituting his public position for private ends. In his
capacity of Attorney-General Lord Campbell remarks of him:
'This situation he held above thirteen years, exhibiting a model of
perfection to other law officers of the Crown. He was punctual and
conscientious in the discharge of his public duty, never neglecting it
that he might undertake private causes, although fees were supposed to
be particularly sweet to him.'
But it was as a judge that he won imperishable fame, and one of his
biographers observes: [Footnote: See Dictionary of National Biography.]
'It is hardly too much to say that during his prolonged tenure of the
Great Seal (from 1737 to 1755) he transformed equity from a chaos of
precedents into a scientific system.' Lord Campbell states that 'his
decisions have been, and ever will continue to be, appealed to as
fixing the limits and establishing the principles of that great
juridical system called Equity, which now, not only in this country and
in our colonies, but over the whole extent of the United States of
America, regulates property and personal rights more than ancient
Common Law.'
He had a 'passion to do justice, and displayed the strictest
impartiality; and his chancellorship' is 'looked back upon as the
golden age of equity.' The Chancellor is said to have been one of the
handsomest men of his day, and 'his personal advantages, which included
a musical voice, enhanced the effect of his eloquence, which by its
stately character was peculiarly adapted to the House of Lords.'
[Footnote: Ibid.]
This is not the place for an estimate of Lord Hardwicke's political
career, which extended over the whole period from the reign of Queen
Anne to that of George III, and brought him into intimate association
with all the statesmen of his age. It was more especially as the
supporter of the Pelham interest and the confidant and mentor of the
Duke of Newcastle that he exercised for many years a predominant
influence on the course of national affairs both at home and abroad.
During the absence of George II from the realm in 1740 and subsequently
he was a member, and by no means the least important member, of the
Council of Regency. 'He was,' writes Campbell, 'mainly instrumental in
keeping the reigning dynasty of the Brunswicks on the throne'; he was
the adviser of the measures for suppressing the Jacobite rebellion in
1745, he presided as Lord High Steward with judicial impartiality at
the famous trial of the rebel Lords, and was chiefly responsible for
the means taken in the pacification of Scotland, the most questionable
of which was the suppression of the tartan! Good fortune, as is usually
the case when a man rises to great eminence, played its part in his
career. He had friends who early recognised his ability and gave him
the opportunities of which he was quick to avail himself. He took the
tide at its flood and was led on to fortune; but, as Campbell justly
observes, 'along with that good luck such results required lofty
aspirations, great ability, consummate prudence, rigid self-denial, and
unwearied industry.' His rise in his profession had undoubtedly been
facilitated by his marriage to Margaret Cocks, a favourite niece of
Lord Chancellor Somers, himself one of the greatest of England's
lawyer-statesmen. There is a story that when asked by Lord Somers what
settlement he could make on his wife, he answered proudly, 'Nothing but
the foot of ground I stand on in Westminster Hall.' Never was the
self-confidence of genius more signally justified than in his case. Not
only was his own rise to fame and fortune unprecedently rapid, but he
became the founder of a family many of whose members have since played
a distinguished part in the public and social life of the country. By
Margaret Cocks he had, with two daughters, five sons, the eldest of
whom enhanced the fortunes of the family by his marriage with Jemima,
daughter of the Earl of Breadalbane, heiress of Wrest and the other
possessions of the extinct Dukedom of Kent, and afterwards Marchioness
Grey and Baroness Lucas of Grudwell in her own right. Of his next son
Charles, the second Chancellor, something will presently be said.
Another son, Joseph, was a soldier and diplomatist. He was aide-de-camp
to the Duke of Cumberland at Fontenoy; and afterwards, as Sir Joseph
Yorke, Ambassador at the Hague. He died Lord Dover. A fourth son, John,
married Miss Elizabeth Lygon, of Madresfield. The fifth son, James,
entered the Church, became Bishop of Ely, and was the ancestor of the
Yorkes of Forthampton. I had the luck many years ago to have a talk
with an old verger in Ely Cathedral who remembered Bishop Yorke, and
who told me that he used to draw such congregations by the power of his
oratory and the breadth of his teaching, that when he preached, all the
dissenting chapels in the neighbourhood were closed!
It was in 1770, only six years after Lord Hardwicke's death which
occurred in London on March 6, 1764, that his second son Charles (born
in 1722) was sworn in as Lord Chancellor. His brilliant career ended in
a tragedy which makes it one of the most pathetic in our political
history. Although unlike his father in person he was intellectually his
equal, and might have rivalled his renown had he possessed his firmness
and resolution of character. He was educated at Cambridge, and before
the age of twenty had given evidence of his precocity as the principal
author (after his brother Philip) of the 'Athenian Letters,' a supposed
correspondence between Cleander, an agent of the King of Persia
resident in Athens, and his brother and friends in Persia. Destined to
the law from his childhood, Charles Yorke was called to the bar in
1743, and rapidly advanced in his profession. Entering the House of
Commons as member for Reigate in 1747, he later succeeded his brother
as member for Cambridge, and one of his best speeches in the House was
made in defence of his father against an onslaught by Henry Fox. But in
spite of his brilliant prospects and great reputation he always envied
those who were able to lead a quiet life, and he thus wrote to his
friend Warburton, afterwards Bishop of Gloucester:
'I endeavour to convince myself it is dangerous to converse with you,
for you show me so much more happiness in the quiet pursuits of
knowledge and enjoyments of friendship than is to be found in lucre or
ambition, that I go back into the world with regret, where few things
are to be obtained without more agitation both of reason and the
passions, than either moderate parts or a benevolent mind can support.'
Charles Yorke was an intimate friend of Montesquieu, the famous author
of the 'Esprit des Lois' and the most far-seeing of those whose
writings preceded and presaged the French Revolution, who wrote, '_Mes
sentiments pour vous sont gravés dans mon cœur et dans mon esprit d'une
manière à ne s'effacer jamais_.'
On the formation of a government by the Duke of Devonshire in 1756,
Charles Yorke was sworn in, at the early age of thirty-three, as
Solicitor-General, and retained that office through the elder Pitt's
glorious administration. In 1762 he accepted from Lord Bute the
Attorney-Generalship, in which position he had to deal with the
difficult questions of constitutional law raised by the publication of
John Wilkes's _North Briton_. In November of that year, however, he
resigned office in consequence of the strong pressure put upon him by
Pitt, and took leave of the King in tears. Pitt failed in his object of
enlisting Yorke's services on behalf of Wilkes in the coming
parliamentary campaign, and the crisis ended in an estrangement between
the two, which drove Yorke into a loose alliance with the Rockingham
Whigs, a group of statesmen who were determined to free English
politics from the trammels of court influence and the baser traditions
of the party system. When, however, this party came into power in 1765,
Yorke was disappointed of the anticipated offer of the Great Seal, and
only reluctantly accepted the Attorney-Generalship. The ministry fell
in the following year, partly in consequence of Pitt's reappearance in
the House of Commons and his disastrous refusal of Rockingham's
invitation to join his Government, though they were agreed on most of
the important questions of the day, including that of American taxation
and the repeal of the Stamp Act; and Pitt, who then (August 1766)
became Lord Chatham, was commissioned to form a new government in
which, to Yorke's mortification, he offered the Lord Chancellorship to
Camden. Yorke thereupon resigned the Attorney-Generalship, and during
the devious course of the ill-starred combination under Chatham's
nominal leadership--for during the next two years Chatham was
absolutely incapacitated from all attention to business, his policy was
reversed by his colleagues, and America taxed by Charles Townshend--he
maintained an 'attitude of saturnine reserve,' amusing himself with
landscape gardening at his villa at Highgate, doing its honours to
Warburton, Hurd, Garrick and other friends, and corresponding among
others with Stanislas Augustus, King of Poland, to whom he had been
introduced by his brother Sir Joseph. Gradually, however, Chatham made
a recovery from the mental disease under which he had been labouring,
and in January 1770 he returned to the political arena with two
vigorous speeches in the House of Lords. His first speech spread
consternation among the members of the Government and the King's party,
led by the Duke of Grafton, who had assumed the duties of Prime
Minister; and one of the first effects of his intervention was the
resignation of Lord Camden, who had adhered to Chatham, and openly
denounced the Duke of Grafton's arbitrary measures. This event placed
the Court party in the utmost difficulty, and no lawyer of sufficient
eminence was available for the post but Charles Yorke, who thus
suddenly found within his reach the high office which had been the
ambition of his life. The crisis was his undoing, and the whole story
is of such interest from a family point of view, that, although it is
well known from the brilliant pages of Sir George Trevelyan's 'Life of
Fox,' I may be excused for telling it again, mainly in the words of two
important memoranda preserved at the British Museum.
One of these was written by Charles Yorke's brother, the second Lord
Hardwicke, and dated nearly a year later, December 30, 1770; the other,
dated October 20, 1772, by his widow Agneta Yorke; and the effect of
them, to my mind, is not only to discredit the widely believed story of
Charles Yorke's suicide, which is not even alluded to, but also to
place his action from a public and political point of view in a more
favourable light than that in which it is sometimes presented.
Both the 'Memorials' to which I have alluded give a most vivid and
painful account of the struggle between ambition and political
consistency which followed upon the offer of the Chancellorship by the
Duke of Grafton to one who was pledged by his previous action to the
Rockingham party. Lord Hardwicke wrote:
'I shall set down on this paper the extraordinary and melancholy
circumstances which attended the offer of the Great Seal to my brother
in January last. On the 12th of that month he received on his return
from Tittenhanger a note from the Duke of Grafton desiring to see him.
He sent it immediately to me and I went to Bloomsbury Square where I
met my brother John and we had a long consultation with Mr. Yorke. He
saw the Duke of Grafton by appointment in the evening and his grace
made him in form and without personal cordiality an offer of the Great
Seal, complaining heavily of Lord Camden's conduct, particularly his
hostile speech in the House of Lords the first day of the Session. My
brother desired a little time to consider of so momentous an affair and
stated to the Duke the difficulties it laid him under, his grace gave
him till Sunday in the forenoon. He, Mr. Y., called on me that morning,
the 14th, and seemed in great perplexity and agitation. I asked him if
he saw his way through the clamorous and difficult points upon which it
would be immediately expected he should give his opinion, viz. the
Middlesex Election, America and the state of Ireland, where the
parliament had just been prorogued on a popular point. He seriously
declared that he did not, and that he might be called upon to advise
measures of a higher and more dangerous nature than he should choose to
be responsible for. He was clearly of opinion that he was not sent for
at the present juncture from predilection, but necessity, and how much
soever the Great Seal had been justly the object of his ambition, he
was now afraid of accepting it.
'Seeing him in so low and fluttered a state of spirits and knowing how
much the times called for a higher, I did not venture to push him on,
and gave in to the idea he himself started, of advising to put the
Great Seal in commission, by which time would be gained. He went from
me to the Duke of Grafton, repeated his declining answer, and proposed
a commission for the present, for which precedents of various times
were not wanting. The Duke of Grafton expressed a more earnest desire
that my brother should accept than he did at the first interview, and
pressed his seeing the King before he took a final resolution. I saw
him again in Montague House garden, on Monday the 15th, and he then
seemed determined to decline, said a particular friend of his in the
law, Mr. W. had rather discouraged him, and that nothing affected him
with concern but the uneasiness which it might give to Mrs. Yorke.
'On Tuesday forenoon the 16th, he called upon me in great agitation and
talked of accepting. He changed his mind again by the evening when he
saw the King at the Queen's Palace, and finally declined. He told me
just after the audience that the King had not pressed him so strongly
as he had expected, that he had not held forth much prospect of
stability in administration, and that he had not talked so well to him
as he did when he accepted the office of Attorney-General in 1765; his
Majesty however ended the conversation very humanely and prettily, that
"after what he had said to excuse himself, it would be cruelty to press
his acceptance." I must here solemnly declare that my brother was all
along in such agitation of mind that he never told me all the
particulars which passed in the different conversations, and many
material things may have been said to him which I am ignorant of. He
left me soon after to call on Mr. Anson and Lord Rockingham,
authorising me to acquaint everybody that he had absolutely declined,
adding discontentedly that "It was the confusion of the times which
occasioned his having taken that resolution." He appeared to me very
much ruffled and disturbed, but I made myself easy on being informed
that he would be quiet next day and take physic. He wanted both that
and bleeding, for his spirits were in a fever.'
Up to this point Mrs. Yorke's account, written apparently to explain
and vindicate her own share in the transaction, tallies with that of
her brother-in-law, except that she states that Lord Hardwicke had been
much more favourable to the idea of Charles Yorke's acceptance than the
above narrative leads one to suppose; according to her the family felt
'it was too great a thing to refuse.' Lord Hardwicke's wife, the
Marchioness Grey, indeed, had called upon Mrs. Yorke to urge it, saying
among other things that 'the great office to which Mr. Yorke was
invited was in the line of his profession, that though it was
intimately connected with state affairs, yet it had not that absolute
and servile dependance on the Court which the other ministerial offices
had; that Mr. Yorke had already seen how vain it was to depend on the
friendship of Lord Rockingham and his party; that the part he had acted
had always been separate and uninfluenced, and therefore she thought he
was quite at liberty to make choice for himself, and by taking the
seals he would perhaps have it in his power to reconcile the different
views of people and form an administration which might be permanent and
lasting; that if he now refused the seals they would probably never be
offered a second time ... and that these were Lord Hardwicke's
sentiments as well as her own.'
Lord Mansfield's advice had been more emphatic still. 'He had no doubt
of the propriety of his accepting the Great Seal, indeed was so
positive that Mr. Yorke told me he would hear no reason against it.'
Mrs. Yorke herself was at first opposed to the idea; but influenced by
such opinions and by her husband's extreme dejection after refusing the
offer, she ended by strongly urging him to accept, and was afterwards
blamed for having encouraged his fatal ambition. Lord Rockingham alone,
who had been greatly dependent upon the advice and assistance of Mr.
Yorke, 'to whom,' as Mrs. Yorke remarks, 'he could apply every moment,'
and 'without whom he would have made no figure at all in his
administration,' put the strongest pressure on him to decline, for
selfish reasons as appears from Mrs. Yorke's story. It was therefore
against the advice of his own family and 'the generality of his
friends,' including Lord Chief Justice Wilmot, that Charles Yorke, in
obedience to his own high sense of political honour, at first refused
the dazzling promotion, and this fact must be recorded to his credit.
The decision, however, brought no peace to his mind, and ambition
immediately began to resume its sway. He passed a restless night, and
said in the morning to his wife 'that he would not think of it, for he
found whenever he was inclined to consent he could get no rest, and
want of rest would kill him.' But after another day, Tuesday, spent in
conference 'I believe with Lords Rockingham and Hardwicke,' he was
persuaded, by what means does not appear, to go again to Court. Lord
Hardwicke, who, as Sir George Trevelyan observes, played a true
brother's part throughout the wretched business, thus continues:
'Instead of taking his physic, he left it on the table after a broken
night's rest, and went to the _levée_, was called into the closet, and
in a manner compelled by the King to accept the Great Seal with
expressions like these: "My sleep has been disturbed by your declining;
do you mean to declare yourself unfit for it?" and still stronger
afterwards, "If you will not comply, it must make an eternal break
betwixt us." At his return from Court about three o'clock, he broke in
unexpectedly on me, who was talking with Lord Rockingham, and gave us
this account.
We were both astounded, to use an obsolete but strong word, at so
sudden an event, and I was particularly shocked at his being so
overborne in a manner I had never heard of, nor could imagine possible
between Prince and subject. I was hurt personally at the figure I had
been making for a day before, telling everybody by his authority that
he was determined to decline, and I was vexed at his taking no notice
of me or the rest of the family when he accepted. All these
considerations working on my mind at this distracting moment induced
me, Lord Rockingham joining in it, to press him to return forthwith to
the King, and entreat his Majesty either to allow him time till next
morning to recollect himself, or to put the Great Seal in commission,
as had been resolved upon. We could not prevail; he said he could not
in honour do it, he had given his word, had been wished joy, &c. Mr.
John Yorke came in during this conversation, and did not take much part
in it, but seemed quite astounded. After a long altercating
conversation, Mr. Yorke, unhappily then Lord Chancellor, departed, and
I went to dinner.
'In the evening, about eight o'clock, he called on me again, and
acquainted me with his having been sworn in at the Queen's house, and
that he had then the Great Seal in the coach. He talked to me of the
title he intended to take, that of Morden, which is part of the Wimple
estate, asked my forgiveness if he had acted improperly. We kissed and
parted friends. A warm word did not escape either of us. When he took
leave he seemed more composed, but unhappy. Had I been quite cool when
he entered my room so abruptly at three o'clock I should have said
little--wished him joy, and reserved expostulation for a calmer moment.'
Mrs. Yorke's account of these 'altercating conversations' between the
brothers, at the second of which, on the evening of the 17th, she was
herself present, is naturally much more highly coloured. Charles Yorke
was evidently terribly discomposed by it, speaking of Lord Hardwicke's
language as 'exceeding all bounds of temper, reason, and even common
civility.' 'I hope,' he said to his wife, 'he will in cooler moments
think better of it, and my brother John also, for if I lose the support
of my family, I shall be undone.'
I need not pursue the subject of this distressing difference between
the brothers, which no doubt assumed an altogether exaggerated
importance in the sensitive and affectionate, but self-centred, mind of
poor Charles Yorke, shaken as he was by the strain and struggle of
these days, but which was probably the immediate cause of his fatal
illness.
'We returned home' (from St. James's Square), writes Mrs. Yorke, 'and
Mr. Woodcock followed in the chariot with the Great Seal. The King had
given it in his closet, and at the same time Mr. Yorke kissed his
Majesty's hand on being made Baron of Morden in the county of
Cambridge. Not once did Mr. Yorke close his eyes, though at my entreaty
he took composing medicines.... Before morning he was determined to
return the Great Seal, for he said if he kept it he could not live. I
know not what I said, for I was terrified almost to death. At six
o'clock I found him so ill that I sent for Dr. Watson, who ought
immediately to have bled him, instead of which he contented himself
with talking to him. He ordered him some medicine and was to see him
again in the evening. In the meantime Mr. Yorke was obliged to rise to
receive the different people who would crowd to him on this occasion,
but before he left me, he assured me that when the Duke of Grafton came
to him at night, he would resign the seals. When his company had left
him, he came up to me, and even then, death was upon his face. He said
he had settled all his affairs, that he should retire absolutely from
business, and would go to Highgate the next day, and that he was
resolved to meddle no more with public affairs. I was myself so ill
with fatigue and anxiety that I was not able to dine with him, but Dr.
Plumptre did; when I went to them after dinner I found Mr. Yorke in a
state of fixed melancholy. He neither spoke to me nor to Dr. Plumptre;
I tried every method to wake and amuse him, but in vain. I could
support it no longer, I fell upon my knees before him and begged of him
not to affect himself so much--that he would resume his fortitude and
trust to his own judgment--in short, I said a great deal which I
remember now no more; my sensations were little short of distraction at
that time. In an hour or two after he grew much worse, and Dr. Watson
coming in persuaded him to go to bed, and giving him a strong opiate,
he fell asleep.
But his rest was no refreshment; about the middle of the night he
awaked in a delirium, when I again sent for Dr. Watson; towards the
morning he was more composed, and at noon got up. In about an hour
after he was up, he was seized with a vomiting of blood. I was not with
him at the instant, but was soon called to him. He was almost
speechless, but on my taking his hand in an agony of silent grief he
looked tenderly on me, and said, "How can I repay your kindness, my
dear love; God will reward you, I cannot; be comforted." These were the
last words I heard him speak, for my nerves were too weak to support
such affliction. I was therefore prevented from being in his room, and
indeed I was incapable of giving him assistance. He lived till the next
day, when at five o'clock in the afternoon, he changed this life for a
better.'
Lord Hardwicke meanwhile had decided to follow the very friendly and
right opinion of Dr. Jeffreys, 'that he would do his best to support
the part which his brother had taken,' and came to town with that
resolution on 'Friday in the forenoon' but he found that Charles Yorke
had been taken very ill that morning.
'When I saw him on the evening of the 19th he was in bed and too much
disordered to be talked with. There was a glimmering of hope on the
20th in the morning, but he died that day about five in the evening.
The patent of peerage had passed all the forms except the Great Seal,
and when my poor brother was asked if the seal should be put to it, he
waived it, and said "he hoped it was no longer in his custody." I can
solemnly declare that except what passed at my house on the Wednesday
forenoon, I had not the least difference with him throughout the whole
transaction, not a sharp or even a warm expression passed, but we
reasoned over the subject like friends and brothers.... In short, the
usage he met with in 1766 when faith was broke with him, had greatly
impaired his judgment, dejected his spirits, and made him act below his
superior knowledge and abilities. He would seldom explain himself, or
let his opinion be known in time to those who were ready to have acted
with him in the utmost confidence. After the menacing language used in
the closet to compel Mr. Yorke's acceptance and the loss which the King
sustained by his death at that critical juncture, the most unprejudiced
and dispassionate were surprised at the little, or rather no notice
which was taken of his family; the not making an offer to complete the
peerage was neither to be palliated nor justified in their opinion. It
was due to the _Manes_ of the departed from every motive of humanity
and decorum. Lord Hillsborough told a friend of mine, indeed, that the
King had soon after his death spoke of him with tears in his eyes and
enquired after the family, but it would surely not have misbecome his
Majesty conscious of the whole of his behaviour to an able, faithful,
and despairing subject, to have expressed that concern in a more
particular manner, and to those who were so deeply affected by the
melancholy event.
'A worthier and better man there never was, no more learned and
accomplished in his own profession, as well as out of it. What he
wanted was the calm, firm judgment of his father, and he had the
misfortune to live in times which required a double portion of it.
Every precaution was taken by me to prepare him for the offer, and to
persuade him to form some previous plan of conduct, but all in vain. He
would never explain himself clearly, and left everything to chance,
till we were all overborne, perplexed and confounded in that fatal
interval which opened and closed the negotiation with my brother. With
him the Somers line of the law seems to be at an end, I mean of that
set in the profession who, mixing principles of liberty with those
proper to monarchy, have conducted and guided that great body of men
ever since the Revolution.'
Fever, complicated by colic and the rupture of a blood-vessel, caused
Charles Yorke's death, the consequence of the extreme nervous tension
which he had undergone, of which his widow has left a most touching and
graphic description. I wish I could have found room for the whole of
her account of those days. The circumstances of his physical
constitution and the mental struggle he had suffered are quite
sufficient to account for his death without the gratuitous assumption
of suicide, which there is nothing in the family papers to support.
There is no doubt that this idea was prevalent at the time, and
allusions to it are to be found in many subsequent accounts, down to
that in Sir George Trevelyan's 'Life of Fox.' Perhaps it is not too
much to hope that this allegation may be at last disposed of in the
light of the papers by his brother and his wife. We have two clear and
positive declarations in these papers: first, that in the beginning of
his illness he declined his physic, and afterwards took an opiate;
second, that there followed the rupture of a blood-vessel. When Lord
Hardwicke saw him for the last time on the 19th he was 'extremely ill';
'there was a glimmering of hope on the 20th in the morning, but he died
that day about five in the evening.'
This is the summary of the evidence, which to my mind is conclusive.
Unless one assumes a conspiracy of silence between Lord Hardwicke and
Mrs. Yorke, I do not see that I can reasonably admit any other
hypothesis. I therefore claim that phrase of his brother's as a
solution of the supposed mystery of Charles Yorke's death.
If hereafter the vague rumours which have so long been current should
be supported by any real evidence, my judgment will be disputed, but I
am glad to have this opportunity of asserting my own firm conviction
that the version of the unhappy affair given in the family papers is
correct, and that Charles Yorke's death was due to natural causes.
Charles Yorke was twice married. His first wife was a daughter of
Williams Freeman, Esq., of Aspeden, Hertfordshire, by whom he had a son
Philip. This son succeeded his uncle as third Earl of Hardwicke, he
inherited the Tittenhanger and other estates (which passed away to his
daughters on his death in 1834) from his mother, and he is still
remembered for his wise and liberal administration as the first
Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland after the Union (from 1801 to 1806), the
irritation and unrest caused by which measure he did much to allay.
[Footnote: A recent publication, _The Viceroy's Post Bag_, by Mr.
MacDonagh, gives some curious details of his correspondence from the
Hardwicke Papers at the British Museum.] As a Whig he had always been
in favour of Catholic Emancipation in Ireland, and though he agreed to
postpone it on joining Addington's Administration, he adhered to the
cause till its triumph in 1829; and he gave a qualified support to the
Parliamentary Reform Bill in 1831. He was created a Knight of the
Garter in 1803, [Footnote: Lord Hardwicke married in 1782 Elizabeth,
daughter of James, fifth Earl of Balcarres, the sister of Lady Anne
Barnard, the authoress of _Auld Robin Gray_.] and had the misfortune to
lose the only son who survived infancy in a storm at sea off Lübeck in
1808 at the age of twenty-four. The succession to the peerage was thus
opened up to his half-brothers, the sons of Charles Yorke's second
wife, Agneta, daughter of Henry Johnston of Great Berkhampsted: Charles
Philip (1764-1834) who left no heir, and Joseph Sydney (1768-1831),
father of the subject of this memoir. I have already alluded to the
public career of their half-brother, the third Lord Hardwicke; and it
is interesting to see how the tradition of political and public work
was maintained by the two younger brothers, who both, and especially
the younger of the two, added fresh laurels to the distinguished record
held by so many of the descendants of the great Chancellor. The Right
Honourable Charles Yorke represented the county of Cambridge in
Parliament from 1790 to 1810, and joined Addington's Government at the
same time as Lord Hardwicke, first as Secretary at War in 1801, and
then as Secretary of State for the Home Department, till the return to
office of William Pitt (to whom he was politically opposed) in 1804. In
1810 he became first Lord of the Admiralty under Spencer Perceval, with
his younger brother Joseph as one of the Sea Lords, and retained office
till Perceval's assassination broke up the ministry; and when in 1812
Lord Liverpool became Prime Minister he left the Admiralty and never
afterwards returned to office, retiring from public life in 1818. The
splendid breakwater at Plymouth was decided on and commenced while he
was at the Admiralty, and a slab of its marble marks his tomb in
Wimpole Church.
With Joseph Sydney Yorke, afterwards Admiral and a K.C.B., opens a
chapter of family history with which this volume will be mainly
concerned; and the navy rather than the law or politics henceforth
becomes the chief interest of the story in its public aspect. Sir
Joseph, indeed, may be looked upon as a sort of second founder of the
family. Although Wimpole in Cambridgeshire, which the Chancellor
purchased from the Harleys, Earls of Oxford, was for many generations
the principal seat of the family, Sydney Lodge, on Southampton Water,
[Footnote: Attached to Sydney Lodge on the shore of Southampton Water
is a white battery containing guns taken from a French frigate and
bearing an inscription, written by my father, commemorating his last
parting with my grandfather, Sir Joseph. The battery encloses a well,
known as 'Agneta's Well,' which has refreshed many a thirsty fisherman.
The inscription is as follows:--
IN MEMORIAM
THESE GUNS WERE THE FORECASTLE ARMAMENT OF THE DUTCH FRIGATE 'ALLIANCE'
OF 36 GUNS
CAPTURED ON THE COAST OF NORWAY IN 1795
AFTER A CLOSE ACTION WITH H.M.S. 'STAG' OF 32 GUNS
COMMANDED BY CAPTAIN YORKE
OF SYDNEY LODGE
THE FATHER OF THE FOURTH EARL OF HARDWICKE WHO ON THIS SPOT IN 1829
PARTED FROM HIS BELOVED PARENT FOR THE LAST TIME
AND SAILED IN COMMAND OF H.M.S. 'ALLIGATOR'
FOR THE MEDITERRANEAN.
HE PLACES THIS STONE TO HIS FATHER'S MEMORY
September 4th, 1871] the charming house which Sir Joseph built out of
prize-money earned during the French wars, has all the associations of
a home for our branch of the family, and the love of the sea is an
inheritance which we all derive from him. His professional ability is
shown by the position he won in the service. Entering the navy in 1780
when he was fourteen, he had plenty of opportunity of active service in
those stirring times. After serving on board one or two other vessels,
Joseph Yorke joined the _Duke_ commanded by Sir Charles Douglas, whom
he followed to the _Formidable_. That vessel was one of Rodney's fleet
in the West Indies, and the boy fought in her at the famous action of
April 12, 1782 in which that admiral completely defeated the French
under De Grasse. He remained in the _Formidable_ until she paid off in
1783, and spent the years 1784-1789 on the Halifax station. In the
latter year he was promoted Lieutenant in the _Thisbe_ under Captain
Sir Samuel Hood and returned in her to England. Promotion followed
rapidly. Yorke became a Commander in 1790 and Captain in 1793, in which
capacity he served continuously on the home station, taking part in the
blockade of Brest, until the Peace of Amiens.
During this time he had the good fortune to capture several large
privateers from the enemy; he also took the _Espiégle_, a French
corvette, close to Brest harbour and in sight of a very superior French
squadron. In 1794 Captain Yorke was given command of the _Stag_, 32,
and cruised in the Channel later off the coast of Ireland, and later
still, with the North Sea Fleet under Lord Duncan.
'On the 22nd of August 1795, Captain Yorke being in company with a
light squadron under the orders of Captain James Alms, gave chase to
two large ships and a cutter. At 4.15 P.M. the _Stag_ brought the
sternmost ship to close action, which continued with much spirit for
about half an hour, when the enemy struck, and proved to be the
_Alliance_, Batavian frigate of 36 guns and 240 men. Her consorts the
_Argo_ 36, and _Nelly_ cutter, 16, effected their escape after
sustaining a running fight with the other ships of the British
squadron. In this spirited action, the _Stag_ had 4 men slain and 13
wounded, and the enemy between 40 and 50 killed and wounded.'
He was at the Nore during the dangerous mutiny of 1798, and he left
among his papers a very stirring address made to his crew on the day
that the mutineers were hung at the yard-arm. When the war broke out
again in 1803 he was again employed in the Channel, and after
commanding the _Barfleur_ and the _Christian VII_ he was appointed a
junior Sea Lord in May 1810, when his brother was First Lord. In this
year he was knighted when acting as proxy for Lord Hardwicke at his
installation as a Knight of the Garter; on July 31 he was promoted to
the rank of Rear-Admiral; and in the following January, with his flag
in the _Vengeur_, he was sent out with reinforcements for Wellington to
Lisbon. These were landed on March 4, 1811, and on the news being
received, Massena broke up his camp in front of the lines of Torres
Vedras and began his retreat. This was Sir Joseph's last service
afloat. In 1814, while still a member of the Board, he was appointed
First Sea Lord under Lord Melville as First Lord, and held that high
post till 1818, a period of office which covered Lord Exmouth's
expedition against Algiers in 1816. He became Vice-Admiral and Knight
Commander of the Bath on January 2, 1815, when he also received the
freedom of the borough of Plymouth, and he was made a full Admiral on
July 22, 1830. He had been member for Reigate since 1790, with an
interval as member for Sandwich, from 1812 to 1818.
Sir Joseph married in 1798 Elizabeth Weake Rattray and had a family of
four sons and one daughter, afterwards Lady Agneta Bevan. Lady Yorke
died in 1812, and in 1815 he married Urania, Dowager Marchioness of
Clanricarde and daughter of the twelfth Lord Winchester, who survived
him. During his later years he lived mostly at Sydney Lodge, occupied
with family interests, and in the administration of various charities,
naval and other. My grandfather was a fine type of English sailor, very
handsome in his youth, as Romney's portraits show, affectionate and
high-spirited; altogether one of the most attractive figures in our
family history. Some following chapters will show him in his relations
with his son, and mention the peculiar circumstances attending his
accidental death by drowning.