Henry FitzGerald-de Ros, 21st Baron De Ros
   HOME

TheInfoList



OR:

Henry William FitzGerald-de Ros, 21st Baron de Ros (12 June 1793 – 28/29 March 1839) was a British nobleman, the son of Lord Henry FitzGerald and his wife Charlotte FitzGerald-de Ros, 20th Baroness de Ros. Fitzgerald-de Ros briefly served as Member of Parliament (United Kingdom), member of parliament for the borough of West Looe (UK Parliament constituency), West Looe from 1816 to 1818. In 1831, upon the death of his mother, he inherited the Baron de Ros, Barony of de Ros, the oldest surviving barony in the Peerage of England. He was an excellent whist player, but was involved in a gambling scandal in 1836. Lord de Ros was accused of cheating at Graham's Club by the trick of ''sauter la coupe'', and by marking the cards with his thumbnail. He sued his accusers for libel, but lost the case. He died not long after, and was commemorated by Theodore Hook with the punning epitaph, "Here lies the premier baron of England, patiently awaiting the last trump". He died in London, unmarried and without issue. It has been suggested that Charles Dickens may have based the character of Nicholas Nickleby#Associates of Ralph Nickleby, Sir Mulberry Hawk in his novel ''Nicholas Nickleby'' to some extent on Lord de Ros, a man-about-town with a reputation for fleecing gullible young men, seducing women and various forms of swindling.


References

Barons de Ros, 22 FitzGerald dynasty, Henry 1793 births 1839 deaths Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies UK MPs 1812–1818 UK MPs who inherited peerages Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for constituencies in Cornwall {{England-UK-MP-stub