George Drought Warburton (1816–1857) was an Irish soldier, politician and writer on Canada.

Life

The third son of George Warburton of Aughrim, County Galway, and younger brother of Bartholomew Elliott George Warburton, known as Eliot, he was born at

Wicklow Wicklow ( ; ga, Cill Mhantáin , meaning 'church of the toothless one'; non, Víkingaló) is the county town of County Wicklow in Ireland. It is located south of Dublin on the east coast of the island. According to the 2016 census, it has ...

. He was educated at the Royal Military College, Woolwich, and served in the

Royal Artillery The Royal Regiment of Artillery, commonly referred to as the Royal Artillery (RA) and colloquially known as "The Gunners", is one of two regiments that make up the artillery arm of the British Army. The Royal Regiment of Artillery comprises t ...

from June 1833. In 1837 Warburton was sent with a detachment of the royal artillery to assist the

Auxiliary Legion The British Auxiliary Legion, also called the British Legion (''La Legión Británica'') or Westminster Legion, existed from 1835 to 1837. It was a British military force sent to Spain to support the Liberals and Queen Isabella II of Spain against ...

in Spain, and was seriously wounded in action. In the middle of July 1844 he embarked from

Chatham Chatham may refer to: Places and jurisdictions Canada * Chatham Islands (British Columbia) * Chatham Sound, British Columbia * Chatham, New Brunswick, a former town, now a neighbourhood of Miramichi * Chatham (electoral district), New Brunswic ...

for Canada. He returned from Canada in 1846, and was later stationed at

Landguard Fort Landguard Fort is a fort at the mouth of the River Orwell outside Felixstowe, Suffolk, designed to guard the mouth of the river. It is now managed by the charity English Heritage and is open to the public. History Originally known as Langer ...

, near

Harwich Harwich is a town in Essex, England, and one of the Haven ports on the North Sea coast. It is in the Tendring district. Nearby places include Felixstowe to the north-east, Ipswich to the north-west, Colchester to the south-west and Clacton-on- ...

Essex Essex () is a county in the East of England. One of the home counties, it borders Suffolk and Cambridgeshire to the north, the North Sea to the east, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent across the estuary of the River Thames to the south, and G ...

. In November 1854 Warburton retired from the army as major on full pay, and resided at Henley House,

Frant Frant is a village and civil parish in the Wealden District of East Sussex, England, on the Kentish border about three miles (5 km) south of Royal Tunbridge Wells. When the iron industry was at its height, much of the village was owned ...

Sussex Sussex (), from the Old English (), is a historic county in South East England that was formerly an independent medieval Anglo-Saxon kingdom. It is bounded to the west by Hampshire, north by Surrey, northeast by Kent, south by the English ...

. On 28 March 1857 he was elected by a large majority as an independent liberal member for . Apparently subject to pains, he shot himself through the head at Henley House on 23 October 1857, aged 41. He was buried at

Iffley Iffley is a village in a designated Conservation Area in Oxfordshire, England. It lies within the boundaries of the city of Oxford, between Cowley, Oxfordshire, Cowley and the estates of Rose Hill, Oxford, Rose Hill and Donnington, Oxfordshire, D ...

, near Oxford.

Works

Warburton wrote a description of the dominion of Canada, under its ancient vernacular name, as ''Hochelaga; or England in the New World'' (1846). The work was published anonymously, in two volumes, as "edited by Eliot Warburton", and the fifth edition, revised, came out in 1854. It was also printed in New York, although the part on the United States was uncomplimentary. He wrote also: *''The Conquest of Canada'' (1850), anonymous, in two volumes. This passed through three British editions in England, and was issued at New York in 1850. *''Memoir of Charles Mordaunt, Earl of Peterborough and Monmouth, by the author of "Hochelaga"'' (1853), 2 vols.

Family

Warburton married at St. George's, Hanover Square, on 1 June 1853, Elizabeth Augusta Bateman-Hanbury, third daughter of William Hanbury Bateman, 1st Baron Bateman, and had an only daughter, who became the wife of Lord Edward Spencer-Churchill. In April 1869 his widow married

George Rushout, 3rd Baron Northwick George Rushout, 3rd Baron Northwick (30 August 1811 – 11 November 1887), was a British Conservative politician. Background Northwick was the son of George Rushout-Bowles, younger son of John Rushout, 1st Baron Northwick. His mother was Lady ...

, and she was in 1886 the recipient of the Dunmow flitch.

Notes

External links

* * Attribution {{DEFAULTSORT:Warburton, George Drought 1816 births 1857 deaths Royal Artillery officers Irish male writers Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies People from Wicklow (town) UK MPs 1857–1859 19th-century Irish writers Suicides by firearm in England Irish politicians who committed suicide Graduates of the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich 1850s suicides People from Frant