Aubrey William de Vere Beauclerk (1801 – 1854) was a Radical British Member of Parliament (MP), who was elected to serve the dual-member

East Surrey East Surrey is a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the UK Parliament since 2019 by Claire Coutinho, a Conservative. The seat covers an affluent area in the English county of Surrey. Since its creation in 1918, East Surrey has ...

, making contributions in the Commons between 1833 and 1837, when he did not stand for re-election. One of his great-grandfathers was a younger son of the 1st Duke of St Albans (paternal-line-only), two of the others were the

3rd Duke of Marlborough Charles Spencer, 3rd Duke of Marlborough, (22 November 170620 October 1758), styled as The Honourable Charles Spencer between 1706 and 1729 and as The Earl of Sunderland between 1729 and 1733, was a British soldier, nobleman, and politician f ...

and 2nd Duke of Richmond.

Domestic life

Beauclerk, born on 20 February 1801, was the son of

Charles George Beauclerk Charles George Beauclerk (20 January 1774 – 25 December 1845) was an English politician who served as Member of Parliament (MP) for the borough of Richmond from 1796 to 1798. Background and education He was the only son of Topham Beauclerk and ...

and Emily Charlotte Ogilvie. His patrilineal great-grandfather was a younger son of the 1st

Duke of St Albans Duke of St Albans is a title in the Peerage of England. It was created in 1684 for Charles Beauclerk, 1st Earl of Burford, then 14 years old. King Charles II had accepted that Burford was his illegitimate son by Nell Gwyn, an actress, and awa ...

, two of those on other lines were the 3rd

Duke of Marlborough General John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, 1st Prince of Mindelheim, 1st Count of Nellenburg, Prince of the Holy Roman Empire, (26 May 1650 – 16 June 1722 O.S.) was an English soldier and statesman whose career spanned the reign ...

and 2nd Duke of Richmond, the latter through his mother.Entry for Aubrey Beauclerk 1801-1854
Thepeerage.com reciting: Mosley, Charles, editor. ''Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knightage'', 107th edition, 3 volumes. Wilmington, Delaware, U.S.A.: Burke's Peerage (Genealogical Books) Ltd, 2003, p.3460 He was a political radical, active in the reform movement.Muriel Spark, ''Mary Shelley'', London: Cardinal (1989): 133. He lived at

Ardglass Castle Ardglass Castle (also known as The Newark) is situated in Ardglass, County Down, Northern Ireland. It was originally a row of 15th century warehouses by the harbour. Large sections of the original building can still be seen within the modern cl ...

in County Down, Ireland, the mansion known as St. Leonard Lodge, Horsham and Cheltenham, England. On 13 February 1834 he married Ida Goring and had three daughters and in 1837 a namesake, without middle name William, who died in 1919. She drowned in the pond at St Leonard's mansion on 23 April 1839; the jury and coroner met the next day at the house and found she might have accidentally fallen, being at times accustomed to giddiness.''The'' Morning Post (London, England), Monday, 29 April 1839; Issue 21316. British Library Newspapers, Part II: 1800-1900 On 7 December 1841 he married Rose Matilda Robinson and they had two daughters. He admitted to an illegitimate son, born 1823, Charles Beauclerk of army captain rank, curate of four parishes in Ulster then vicar (1869-1875) of St Mary's Church, Belfast, then chaplain at Boulogne. Two of Beauclerk's children died before aged 20, the remainder lived well into adulthood. Beauclerk has been romantically involved with the nineteenth-century writer

Mary Shelley Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (; ; 30 August 1797 – 1 February 1851) was an English novelist who wrote the Gothic novel '' Frankenstein; or, The Modern Prometheus'' (1818), which is considered an early example of science fiction. She also ...

. He died on 1 February 1854 at Ardglass Castle, which he inherited from William Ogilvie his grandfather,''The Belfast News-Letter'' (Belfast, Ireland), Monday, 6 February 1854; Issue 11996. British Library Newspapers, Part I: 1800-1900 and was buried in his family vault at the parish church.

Career

A former army major, he was a Member of Parliament (MP) for

from 1832 to 1837. He was co-member for this area on its inception in December 1832. Hansard shows, from him, 114 speeches or questions spanning 1833 to 1837. As an MP he supported the mainstream radical causes of the time, including the

abolition of slavery Abolitionism, or the abolitionist movement, is the movement to end slavery. In Western Europe and the Americas, abolitionism was a historic movement that sought to end the Atlantic slave trade and liberate the enslaved people. The British ...

, achieved in 1833 (with an until early 1840s process of indenturing particularly abroad in the Empire preceding many of the slaves' freedom) and of

tithes A tithe (; from Old English: ''teogoþa'' "tenth") is a one-tenth part of something, paid as a contribution to a religious organization or compulsory tax to government. Today, tithes are normally voluntary and paid in cash or cheques or more ...

, achieved in 1836 by way of a payoff and negligible payments system (commutation for a sum and apportionment of rentchange). He believed in a small, fixed duty (trade tariff) on corn, sought

Anglican Church Anglicanism is a Western Christian tradition that has developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the context of the Protestant Reformation in Europe. It is one of the ...

reform and an end to

taxes on knowledge Taxes on knowledge was a slogan defining an extended British campaign against duties and taxes on newspapers, their advertising content, and the paper they were printed on. The paper tax was early identified as an issue: "A tax upon Paper, is a t ...

. Beauclerk was the only person, according to a letter from Mary Shelley to

Claire Clairmont Clara Mary Jane Clairmont (27 April 1798 – 19 March 1879), or Claire Clairmont as she was commonly known, was the stepsister of the writer Mary Shelley and the mother of Lord Byron's daughter Allegra. She is thought to be the subject of a poe ...

, to support Shelley's son

Percy Florence Shelley Sir Percy Florence Shelley, 3rd Baronet (12 November 1819 – 5 December 1889) was the son of the English poet Percy Bysshe Shelley and his second wife, Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley, novelist and author of ''Frankenstein''. He was the only child ...

's bid to become MP. He was with two others appointed by the Irish Assize judges as

High Sheriff of County Down The High Sheriff of Down is the Sovereign's judicial representative in County Down. Initially an office for lifetime, assigned by the Sovereign, the High Sheriff became annually appointed from the Provisions of Oxford in 1258. Besides his judicia ...

for 1839, 1852, and 1853.''The Edinburgh Gazette'' 12 November 1852 Issue:6229 Page 955

Ancestry

Notes and references

External links

*
UK Parliamentary Archives, Letters from Major AW Beauclerk MP
{{DEFAULTSORT:Beauclerk, Aubrey 1801 births 1854 deaths Liberal Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies UK MPs 1832–1835 UK MPs 1835–1837 Aubrey

Domestic life

Career

Ancestry

See also

Notes and references

External links