Robert Sherard, 6th Earl of Harborough (26 August 1797 – 28 July 1859), styled Lord Sherard from 1797 to 1799, was a British peer.

Early life

Sherard was born on 26 August 1797. He was the only son of

Philip Sherard, 5th Earl of Harborough Philip Sherard, 5th Earl of Harborough (10 October 1767 – 10 December 1807), styled Lord Sherard from 1770 to 1799, was a British peer and politician. Early life Sherard was the eldest son of Robert Sherard, 4th Earl of Harborough and his wife ...

and Eleanor ( Monckton) (1772–1809). He had six sisters, including Lady Lucy Eleanor Sherard (who married Henry Lowther), Lady Anna Maria Sherard (who married William Cuffe), Lady Sophia Sherard (who married

Sir Thomas Whichcote, 6th Baronet ''Sir'' is a formal honorific address in English for men, derived from Sire in the High Middle Ages. Both are derived from the old French "Sieur" (Lord), brought to England by the French-speaking Normans, and which now exist in French only as p ...

and

William Evans-Freke, 8th Baron Carbery William is a male given name of Germanic origin.Hanks, Hardcastle and Hodges, ''Oxford Dictionary of First Names'', Oxford University Press, 2nd edition, , p. 276. It became very popular in the English language after the Norman conquest of Engl ...

after Sir Thomas' death), and Lady Susan Sherard (who married General John Reeve, of

Leadenham House Leadenham House is a Grade II* listed Georgian country house in Leadenham, Lincolnshire, England. The house is constructed in '2½ storeys' of ashlar and dressed limestone rubble with ashlar dressings and a slate hipped roof with a 7 bay frontag ...

). His paternal grandparents were

Robert Sherard, 4th Earl of Harborough The Reverend Robert Sherard, 4th Earl of Harborough (21 October 1719 – 21 April 1799) was a British clergyman who inherited the earldom of Harborough. Early life Born on 21 October 1719, he was one of six sons and eight daughters born to Phi ...

and his wife Jane Reeve. His maternal grandfather was Col. Hon. John Monckton of

Fineshade Abbey Fineshade Priory was a priory of Augustinian Canons Regular in Northamptonshire, England. The remains of the site are about north-east of Corby along the A43 road. It was founded before 1208 by Richard Engayne (Engain), Lord of Blatherwycke on ...

, son of

John Monckton, 1st Viscount Galway John Monckton (1695 – 15 July 1751) of Serlby, Nottinghamshire, was a British landowner and Whig politician who sat in the House of Commons between 1727 and 1751. He was elevated to the Irish peerage as the first Viscount Galway in 1727. Ear ...

. Through his sister Lady Lucy, he was uncle to

Henry Lowther, 3rd Earl of Lonsdale Henry Lowther, 3rd Earl of Lonsdale (27 March 1818 – 15 August 1876) was a British nobleman and Conservative politician. Early life Lowther was born on 27 March 1818. He was the eldest son of Hon. Henry Cecil Lowther and Lady Lucy Sherard. ...

, and diplomat William Lowther.

Career

In 1844, Lord Harborough was involved in an extended battle, both legal and physical, with

Midland Railway The Midland Railway (MR) was a railway company in the United Kingdom from 1844. The Midland was one of the largest railway companies in Britain in the early 20th century, and the largest employer in Derby, where it had its headquarters. It ama ...

over its proposal to run the

Syston and Peterborough Railway The Syston and Peterborough Railway was an early railway in England opened between 1846 and 1848 to form a connection from the Midland Counties Railway near Leicester to Peterborough, giving access to East Anglia over the Eastern Counties Railway ...

along the course of the River Eye through

Stapleford Park Stapleford Park is a Grade I listed country house in Stapleford, Leicestershire, Stapleford, near Melton Mowbray in Leicestershire, England, which is now used as a hotel. It was originally the seat of the Sherard and Tamblyn families, later the Ear ...

, Harborough's country seat in Stapleford in

Leicestershire Leicestershire ( ; postal abbreviation Leics.) is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East Midlands, England. The county borders Nottinghamshire to the north, Lincolnshire to the north-east, Rutland to the east, Northamptonshire t ...

. Its construction would threaten the struggling

Oakham Canal The Oakham Canal ran from Oakham, Rutland to Melton Mowbray, Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It opened in 1802, but it was never a financial success, and it suffered from the lack of an adequate water supply. It closed after 45 ...

, of which Harborough was a shareholder along with Lord Winchilsea. The dispute led to a series of brawls and confrontations between Harborough's men and canal employees (who borrowed cannons from Harborough's yacht to barricade the towing path) on one side and the railway's surveyors on the other with up to 300 involved in each skirmish. The dispute has been called the "Battle of Saxby". The construction of the railway was authorised by Parliament and a second act to allow the canal to be sold and abandoned was obtained on 27 July 1846. After which Oakham Canal was absorbed by Midland and the Syston and Peterborough Railway was built, partly along the canal's course and around Stapleford Park in what is known as "Lord Harborough's Curve". The railway from Syston to Melton Mowbray opened on 1 September 1846. It would be more than a year before the sale of the canal was finally completed, on 29 October 1847, but just six months after that, the line from

Melton Mowbray Melton Mowbray () is a town in Leicestershire, England, north-east of Leicester, and south-east of Nottingham. It lies on the River Eye, known below Melton as the Wreake. The town had a population 27,670 in 2019. The town is sometimes promo ...

to Oakham opened on 1 May 1848. The purchase price enabled a final distribution of £44.35 to be made on each of the original shares. After his death in 1859, the Harborough's Stapleford Park estate was sold to Lord Gretton, who was more sympathetic to the railway, and when the

Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway The Midland and Great Northern Joint Railway (M&GNJR) was a railway network in England, in the area connecting southern Lincolnshire, the Isle of Ely and north Norfolk. It developed from several local independent concerns and was incorporated ...

built a connection to

Bourne Bourne may refer to: Places UK * Bourne, Lincolnshire, a town ** Bourne Abbey ** Bourne railway station * Bourne (electoral division), West Sussex * Bourne SSSI, Avon, a Site of Special Scientific Interest near Burrington, North Somerset * Bourne ...

, the opportunity was taken to reduce the curve, which was a nuisance for the express trains, with Saxby station being moved in the process.

Titles

Upon his father's death on 10 December 1807, he succeeded as the 6th

Earl of Harborough The Earldom of Harborough was a title in the Peerage of Great Britain created in 1719 for Bennet Sherard, who had previously been made Baron Harborough (1714) and Viscount Sherard, with the viscountcy ending with the death of its original hol ...

in the

Peerage of Great Britain The Peerage of Great Britain comprises all extant peerages created in the Kingdom of Great Britain between the Acts of Union 1707 and the Acts of Union 1800. It replaced the Peerage of England and the Peerage of Scotland, but was itself r ...

and the 8th Baron of Sherard in the

Peerage of Ireland The Peerage of Ireland consists of those titles of nobility created by the English monarchs in their capacity as Lord or King of Ireland, or later by monarchs of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. It is one of the five divisi ...

.Sir Bernard Burke, C.B. LL.D., ''A Genealogical History of the Dormant, Abeyant, Forfeited, and Extinct Peerages of the British Empire, new edition'' (1883; reprint,

Baltimore, Maryland Baltimore ( , locally: or ) is the List of municipalities in Maryland, most populous city in the U.S. state of Maryland, fourth most populous city in the Mid-Atlantic (United States), Mid-Atlantic, and List of United States cities by popula ...

: Genealogical Publishing Company, 1978), page 492. On his death without issue in 1859, the

Earldom of Harborough Lord Sherard, Baron of Leitrim, was a title in the Peerage of Ireland in 1627. The third holder of the barony would also be named Baron Harborough (1714), Viscount Sherard (1718), and Earl of Harborough (1719), with the viscountcy ending with ...

became extinct and the Irish Barony of Sherard passed to his kinsman, Philip Castell Sherard, a great-great-great-great-grandson of the 1st Baron Sherard.

Personal life

Lord Harborough had a relationship with, but never married, Emma Sarah ( Love) Calcroft Kennedy (1801–1881), a professional actress and

contralto A contralto () is a type of classical female singing voice whose vocal range is the lowest female voice type. The contralto's vocal range is fairly rare; similar to the mezzo-soprano, and almost identical to that of a countertenor, typica ...

singer. Emma had married Captain

Granby Hales Calcraft Granby Hales Calcraft (18 January 180216 January 1855) was a Whig member of parliament for the constituency of Wareham (1831-1832) and a captain in the army (1824-1833). Biography Calcraft was born in St George Hanover Square, London, the s ...

in 1828 but ran off with Harborough the following year. Together, Emma and Robert had three illegitimate sons, including: * Rev. Bennet Sherard Calcraft Kennedy (1832–1886), who married Jane Stanley Wordsworth, a granddaughter of the poet

William Wordsworth William Wordsworth (7 April 177023 April 1850) was an English Romantic poet who, with Samuel Taylor Coleridge, helped to launch the Romantic Age in English literature with their joint publication '' Lyrical Ballads'' (1798). Wordsworth's ' ...

. Their son was author and journalist Robert Harborough Sherard, a friend, and the first biographer, of

Oscar Wilde Oscar Fingal O'Flahertie Wills Wilde (16 October 185430 November 1900) was an Irish poet and playwright. After writing in different forms throughout the 1880s, he became one of the most popular playwrights in London in the early 1890s. He is ...

. * Edward Sherard Calcraft Kennedy (1837–1900), an artist who married Emily Paul in 1857 and, after their divorce, Florence Elizabeth Laing, a daughter of Samuel Laing. On 27 November 1843, Lord Harborough married Mary Eliza Temple (d. 1886), a daughter of Edward Dalby Temple, Esq. (only son of the Rev. Thomas William Temple) and the former Caroline Honywood (a daughter of

Sir John Honywood, 4th Baronet Sir John Honywood, 4th Baronet (?1757–1806), of Evington, Kent, was an English politician. He was the eldest son of William Honywood and the grandson of Sir John Honywood 3rd Bt., from whom he inherited the baronetcy in 1781. He was a Membe ...

and Lady Frances Courtenay, sister of

William Courtenay, 9th Earl of Devon William "Kitty" Courtenay, 9th Earl of Devon (c. 1768 – 26 May 1835), was the only son of William Courtenay, ''de jure'' 8th Earl of Devon, 2nd Viscount Courtenay and his wife Frances Clack. He attracted infamy for a homosexual affair wit ...

and twelfth daughter of

William Courtenay, 2nd Viscount Courtenay William Courtenay, 8th Earl de jure of Devon (30 October 1742 – 14 October 1788) was the eldest son of William Courtenay 7th de jure Earl of Devon, and Lady Frances Finch. He succeeded to the title of 4th Baronet Courtenay, 2nd Viscount Cour ...

and ''

de jure In law and government, ''de jure'' ( ; , "by law") describes practices that are legally recognized, regardless of whether the practice exists in reality. In contrast, ("in fact") describes situations that exist in reality, even if not legally ...

'' 8th

Earl of Devon Earl of Devon was created several times in the English peerage, and was possessed first (after the Norman Conquest of 1066) by the de Redvers (''alias'' de Reviers, Revieres, etc.) family, and later by the Courtenay family. It is not to be co ...

). Lord Harborough died, without legitimate issue, on 28 July 1859. After his death. Lady Harborough married Maj. Thomas William Claggett of the

Indian Army The Indian Army is the land-based branch and the largest component of the Indian Armed Forces. The President of India is the Supreme Commander of the Indian Army, and its professional head is the Chief of Army Staff (COAS), who is a four- ...

, later a

magistrate The term magistrate is used in a variety of systems of governments and laws to refer to a civilian officer who administers the law. In ancient Rome, a '' magistratus'' was one of the highest ranking government officers, and possessed both judic ...

for

Leicester Leicester ( ) is a city status in the United Kingdom, city, Unitary authorities of England, unitary authority and the county town of Leicestershire in the East Midlands of England. It is the largest settlement in the East Midlands. The city l ...

, on 20 April 1864.

References

;Notes ;Sources

External links

House Sherard
{{DEFAULTSORT:Harborough, Robert Sherard, 6th Earl of 1797 births 1859 deaths

Robert Sherard, 6th Earl of Harborough Robert Sherard, 6th Earl of Harborough (26 August 1797 – 28 July 1859), styled Lord Sherard from 1797 to 1799, was a British peer. Early life Sherard was born on 26 August 1797. He was the only son of Philip Sherard, 5th Earl of Harborough and ...