Richard Godolphin Long
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Richard Godolphin Long (2 October 1761 – 1 July 1835) was an English banker and
Tory A Tory () is a person who holds a political philosophy known as Toryism, based on a British version of traditionalism and conservatism, which upholds the supremacy of social order as it has evolved in the English culture throughout history. The ...
politician.


Life and career

Baptised at
West Lavington, Wiltshire West Lavington is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, on the north edge of Salisbury Plain, on the A360 road between Devizes and Salisbury, about south of Devizes. The parish includes the hamlet of Littleton Panell. The parish w ...
a month after his birth, he was the son of Richard Long (d. 1787) and his wife Meliora, descendant of Sir John Lambe. By 1800, Long was a partner in the Melksham Bank, together with his younger brother John Long, John Awdry and Thomas Bruges. In 1799, he purchased
Steeple Ashton Steeple Ashton is a village and civil parish in Wiltshire, England, east of Trowbridge. In the north of the parish are the hamlets of Ashton Common and Bullenhill. Name and history Until the Dissolution of the Monasteries, Steeple Ashton w ...
Manor House and farm, which remained in the family until 1967, and commissioned architect
Jeffry Wyattville Sir Jeffry Wyatville (3 August 1766 – 18 February 1840) was an English architect and garden designer. Born Jeffry Wyatt into an established dynasty of architects, in 1824 he was allowed by King George IV to change his surname to Wyatville ...
to build
Rood Ashton House Rood Ashton House was a country house in Wiltshire, England, standing in parkland northeast of the village of West Ashton, near Trowbridge. Built in 1808 for Richard Godolphin Long, it was later the home of the 1st Viscount Long (1854–1924). ...
nearby in 1808. He was appointed
High Sheriff of Wiltshire This is a list of the Sheriffs and (after 1 April 1974) High Sheriffs of Wiltshire. Until the 14th century, the shrievalty was held ''ex officio'' by the castellans of Old Sarum Castle. On 1 April 1974, under the provisions of the Local Gov ...
for 1794. Long entered the
House of Commons The House of Commons is the name for the elected lower house of the bicameral parliaments of the United Kingdom and Canada. In both of these countries, the Commons holds much more legislative power than the nominally upper house of parliament. ...
in 1806, sitting for
Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated Wilts) is a historic and ceremonial county in South West England with an area of . It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset to the southwest, Somerset to the west, Hampshire to the southeast, Gloucestershire ...
until 1818. He was the founder of the
Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry The Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry (RWY) was a Yeomanry regiment of the Kingdom of Great Britain and the United Kingdom established in 1794. It was disbanded as an independent Territorial Army unit in 1967, a time when the strength of the Territorial ...
.


Family

On 28 March 1786, he married Florentina Wrey, third daughter of Sir Bourchier Wrey, 6th Baronet, and had by her four daughters and two sons. 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. Their children included: *
Walter Walter may refer to: People * Walter (name), both a surname and a given name * Little Walter, American blues harmonica player Marion Walter Jacobs (1930–1968) * Gunther (wrestler), Austrian professional wrestler and trainer Walter Hahn (born 19 ...
(1793–1867), the eldest son, was also a member of parliament, representing
North Wiltshire North Wiltshire was a local government district in Wiltshire, England, formed on 1 April 1974, by a merger of the municipal boroughs of Calne, Chippenham, and Malmesbury along with Calne and Chippenham Rural District, Cricklade and Wootton Bas ...
* Ellen, the eldest daughter, married John Walmesley in 1812; their children included Richard Walmesley (1816–1893), a lawyer and latterly owner of Lucknam Park, Wiltshire * Florentina (Flora), having been previously engaged to Henry Cobbe (uncle of
Frances Power Cobbe Frances Power Cobbe (4 December 1822 – 5 April 1904) was an Anglo-Irish writer, philosopher, religious thinker, social reformer, anti-vivisection activist and leading women's suffrage campaigner. She founded a number of animal advocacy group ...
), who had died the day before the proposed marriage, formed a strong attachment to the then-elderly poet
George Crabbe George Crabbe ( ; 24 December 1754 – 3 February 1832) was an English poet, surgeon and clergyman. He is best known for his early use of the realistic narrative form and his descriptions of middle and working-class life and people. In the 177 ...
. Flora and her aunts were frequent visitors of novelist
Jane Austen Jane Austen (; 16 December 1775 – 18 July 1817) was an English novelist known primarily for her six major novels, which interpret, critique, and comment upon the British landed gentry at the end of the 18th century. Austen's plots of ...
, who referred to Flora as her 'cousin', though their exact relationship is not known. Austen never met Crabbe, but nursed a fantasy of becoming his wife.


Notes


Further reading


''Inheriting the Earth: The Long Family's 500 Year Reign in Wiltshire''; Cheryl Nicol


External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Long, Richard Godolphin 1761 births 1835 deaths High Sheriffs of Wiltshire Richard Godolphin Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for Wiltshire Tory MPs (pre-1834) UK MPs 1806–1807 UK MPs 1807–1812 UK MPs 1812–1818 Royal Wiltshire Yeomanry officers