Henry Richard Vassall-Fox, 3rd Baron Holland of Holland, and 3rd Baron Holland of Foxley PC (21 November 1773 – 22 October 1840), was an English politician and a major figure in Whig politics in the early 19th century. A grandson of

Henry Fox, 1st Baron Holland Henry Fox, 1st Baron Holland, PC (28 September 1705 – 1 July 1774) was an English peer and Whig politician who served as the Secretary at War from 1746 to 1755. He also held the offices of Secretary of State for the Southern Department f ...

, and nephew of

Charles James Fox Charles James Fox (24 January 1749 – 13 September 1806), styled ''The Honourable'' from 1762, was a British British Whig Party, Whig politician and statesman whose parliamentary career spanned 38 years of the late 18th and early 19th centurie ...

, he served as

Lord Privy Seal The Lord Privy Seal (or, more formally, the Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal) is the fifth of the Great Officers of State (United Kingdom), Great Officers of State in the United Kingdom, ranking beneath the Lord President of the Council and abov ...

between 1806 and 1807 in the Ministry of All the Talents headed by

Lord Grenville William Wyndham Grenville, 1st Baron Grenville (25 October 175912 January 1834) was a British Pittite Tory politician who was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from 1806 to 1807, but was a supporter of the Whigs for the duration of the N ...

and as

Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster The Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster is a ministerial office in the Government of the United Kingdom. Excluding the prime minister, the chancellor is the highest ranking minister in the Cabinet Office, immediately after the prime minister ...

between 1830 and 1834 and again between 1835 and his death in 1840 in the Whig administrations of Lord Grey and

Lord Melbourne Henry William Lamb, 2nd Viscount Melbourne (15 March 177924 November 1848) was a British Whig politician who served as the Home Secretary and twice as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom. His first premiership ended when he was dismissed ...

Background and education

Holland was born at Winterslow House,

Wiltshire Wiltshire (; abbreviated to Wilts) is a ceremonial county in South West England. It borders Gloucestershire to the north, Oxfordshire to the north-east, Berkshire to the east, Hampshire to the south-east, Dorset to the south, and Somerset to ...

, the son of

Stephen Fox, 2nd Baron Holland Stephen Fox, 2nd Baron Holland of Holland and 2nd Baron Holland of Foxley (20 February 1745 – 26 November 1774) of Holland House in Kensington, Middlesex, was a British peer. Biography Lord Holland was the eldest son of Henry Fox, 1st Baron ...

(1745–1774), and Lady Mary FitzPatrick, daughter of John FitzPatrick, 1st Earl of Upper Ossory, and Lady Evelyn, daughter of

John Leveson-Gower, 1st Earl Gower John Leveson-Gower, 1st Earl Gower, PC (10 August 1694 – 25 December 1754) was a British Tory politician who served as Lord Privy Seal from 1742 to 1743 and again from 1744 to 1754. Leveson-Gower also served in the Parliament of Great Brita ...

. His paternal grandparents were

, and

Lady Caroline Lennox Georgiana Carolina Fox, 1st Baroness Holland, of Holland (27 March 1723 – 24 July 1774), known as Lady Caroline Lennox before 1744 and as Lady Caroline Fox from 1744 to 1762, was the eldest of the Lennox sisters. Family background The Lennox ...

, the eldest of the famous

Lennox sisters The Lennox sisters were four eighteenth-century British aristocrats, the daughters of Charles Lennox, 2nd Duke of Richmond (1701–1750) by his wife Lady Sarah Lennox, Duchess of Richmond and Lennox, Sarah Cadogan (1705–1751). The four sisters ...

and a great-granddaughter (through an illegitimate line) of King Charles II. He succeeded in the baronies in December 1774, aged one, on the early death of his father, while his mother died shortly before his fifth birthday. He was educated at Eton and

Christ Church, Oxford Christ Church (, the temple or house, ''wikt:aedes, ædes'', of Christ, and thus sometimes known as "The House") is a Colleges of the University of Oxford, constituent college of the University of Oxford in England. Founded in 1546 by Henry V ...

, where he became the friend of

George Canning George Canning (; 11 April 17708 August 1827) was a British Tory statesman. He held various senior cabinet positions under numerous prime ministers, including two important terms as foreign secretary, finally becoming Prime Minister of the U ...

and John Hookham Frere. Lord Holland's uncle was the great Whig orator

, and he remained steadily loyal to the Whig party.

Political career

On a visit to Paris in 1791, Holland became acquainted with Lafayette and Talleyrand. He took his seat in the

House of Lords The House of Lords is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Like the lower house, the House of Commons of the United Kingdom, House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminster in London, England. One of the oldest ext ...

on 5 October 1796. According to the 1911 edition of the ''Encyclopædia Britannica'' he for a while "almost... constituted the Whig party in the upper house". He was appointed to negotiate a treaty with American envoys

James Monroe James Monroe ( ; April 28, 1758July 4, 1831) was an American Founding Father of the United States, Founding Father who served as the fifth president of the United States from 1817 to 1825. He was the last Founding Father to serve as presiden ...

and

William Pinkney William Pinkney (March 17, 1764February 25, 1822) was an American statesman and diplomat, and was appointed the seventh U.S. Attorney General by President James Madison. Biography William Pinkney was born in 1764 in Annapolis in the Province o ...

, was admitted to the Privy Council on 27 August 1806, and on 15 October entered the Ministry of All the Talents led by

, retiring with the rest of his colleagues in March 1807. Holland led the opposition to the Regency Bill in 1811, and he attacked the orders in council and other strong measures of the government taken to counteract

Napoleon Napoleon Bonaparte (born Napoleone di Buonaparte; 15 August 1769 – 5 May 1821), later known by his regnal name Napoleon I, was a French general and statesman who rose to prominence during the French Revolution and led Military career ...

's Berlin Decrees. He denounced the treaty of 1813 with Sweden which bound Britain to consent to the forcible union of Norway, and he resisted the bill of 1816 for confining Napoleon in

Saint Helena Saint Helena (, ) is one of the three constituent parts of Saint Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha, a remote British overseas territory. Saint Helena is a volcanic and tropical island, located in the South Atlantic Ocean, some 1,874 km ...

. He was

between 1830 and 1834 and 1835 and 1840 in the cabinets of Lord Grey and

, and he was still in office when he died in October 1840.

Ownership of slaves

With the

Slave Compensation Act 1837 The Slave Compensation Act 1837 ( 1 & 2 Vict. c. 3) was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, signed into law on 23 December 1837. Together with the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 ( 3 & 4 Will. 4. c. 73), it authorized the Commissione ...

in the aftermath of the

Slavery Abolition Act 1833 The Slavery Abolition Act 1833 ( 3 & 4 Will. 4. c. 73) was an act of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which abolished slavery in the British Empire by way of compensated emancipation. The act was legislated by Whig Prime Minister Charl ...

, the government paid compensation to former slaveholders. Lord Holland was compensated under three awards for slaves on his estates in Jamaica, which had come to him through his wife, Elizabeth Webster (née Vassall).

Writings

Holland's protests against the measures of the Tory ministers were collected and published, as the ''Opinions of Lord Holland'' (1841), by Dr Moylan of

Lincoln's Inn The Honourable Society of Lincoln's Inn, commonly known as Lincoln's Inn, is one of the four Inns of Court (professional associations for Barrister, barristers and judges) in London. To be called to the bar in order to practise as a barrister ...

. ''Lord Holland's Foreign Reminiscences'' (1850) contain much amusing gossip from the Revolutionary and Napoleonic era. His ''Memoirs of the Whig Party'' (1852; 2 vols.) is an important contemporary authority. He also published a small work on

Lope de Vega Félix Lope de Vega y Carpio (; 25 November 156227 August 1635) was a Spanish playwright, poet, and novelist who was a key figure in the Spanish Golden Age (1492–1659) of Spanish Baroque literature, Baroque literature. In the literature of ...

(1806) and a 2-volume work (1817) on the lives and writings of Lope de Vega and Guillén de Castro. His whimsical short story ''Eve's Legend'', in which the only vowel used is the letter E, is considered a precursor to the constraints of the

Oulipo Oulipo (, short for ; roughly translated as "workshop of potential literature", stylized ''OuLiPo'') is a loose gathering of (mainly) French-speaking writers and mathematicians who seek to create works using constrained writing techniques. It wa ...

school.

Family

After visiting Paris in 1791 Holland again went abroad to travel in France and Italy in 1793. At Florence he met Elizabeth Vassall, at that time Lady Webster, wife of Sir Godfrey Webster, 4th Baronet. She and her husband obtained a divorce, and she married Holland on 6 July 1797, becoming Elizabeth Fox, Baroness Holland. An illegitimate son,

Charles Richard Fox General Charles Richard Fox (6 November 1796 – 13 April 1873) was a British army general, and later a politician. Background Fox was born at Brompton, the illegitimate son of Henry Richard Vassall-Fox, 3rd Baron Holland, through a liaison w ...

, was born to them. He later rose to become a General in the

British Army The British Army is the principal Army, land warfare force of the United Kingdom. the British Army comprises 73,847 regular full-time personnel, 4,127 Brigade of Gurkhas, Gurkhas, 25,742 Army Reserve (United Kingdom), volunteer reserve perso ...

. They had three more children who survived infancy: the Hon. Stephen Fox (d. 1800), Henry Edward Fox, 4th Baron Holland, and Hon. Mary Elizabeth Fox, married to Thomas Powys, 3rd Baron Lilford. In 1800 he was authorised to take the name of Vassall, and after 1807 he signed himself Vassall Holland, though the name was no part of his title. Lord Holland died in October 1840, aged 66, and was succeeded in his titles by his eldest and only surviving legitimate son, Henry. Lady Holland died in November 1845.

Vassall ward

Vassall ward in the

London Borough of Lambeth Lambeth () is a London borough in South London, England, which forms part of Inner London. Its name was recorded in 1062 as ''Lambehitha'' ("landing place for lambs") and in 1255 as ''Lambeth''. The geographical centre of London is at Frazi ...

is named after Henry Richard Vassall-Fox who was responsible for the first building development in the area in the 1820s. Roads in the area such as Holland Grove, Lord Holland Lane, Foxley Square and Vassall Road commemorate this connection.

References

External links

* * , - {{DEFAULTSORT:Holland, Henry Vassall-Fox, 3rd Baron 1773 births 1840 deaths People educated at Eton College Alumni of Christ Church, Oxford Chancellors of the Duchy of Lancaster Lords Privy Seal Fellows of the Royal Society

Henry Henry may refer to: People and fictional characters * Henry (given name), including lists of people and fictional characters * Henry (surname) * Henry, a stage name of François-Louis Henry (1786–1855), French baritone Arts and entertainmen ...

3 Recipients of payments from the Slavery Abolition Act 1833 English slave owners