John George Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham, (12 April 1792 – 28 July 1840), also known as "Radical Jack" and commonly referred to in Canadian history texts as Lord Durham, was a British Whig statesman, colonial administrator,

Governor General Governor-general (plural governors-general), or governor general (plural governors general), is the title of an official, most prominently associated with the British Empire. In the context of the governors-general and former British colonies, ...

and high commissioner of

British North America British North America comprised the colonial territories of the British Empire in North America from 1783 onwards. English colonisation of North America began in the 16th century in Newfoundland, then further south at Roanoke and Jamestown, ...

. A leading reformer, Lord Durham played a major role in the passage of the Reform Bill of 1832. He later served as ambassador to Russia. He was a founding member and chairman of the

New Zealand Company The New Zealand Company, chartered in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, United Kingdom, was a company that existed in the first half of the 19th century on a business model that was focused on the systematic colonisation of New Ze ...

that played a key role in the colonisation of New Zealand.

George Woodcock George Woodcock (May 8, 1912 – January 28, 1995) was a Canadian writer of political biography and history, an anarchist thinker, a philosopher, an essayist and literary critic. He was also a poet and published several volumes of travel wri ...

wrote Lord Durham was "proud, wayward, immensely rich, with romantic good looks and an explosive temper", one of those "natural rebels who turn their rebellious energies to constructive purposes. Both at home and abroad he became a powerful exponent of the early nineteenth-century liberal spirit."

Background and education

Lambton was born 12 April 1792 in the house of his father William Henry Lambton at 14

Berkeley Square Berkeley Square is a garden square in the West End of London. It is one of the best known of the many squares in London, located in Mayfair in the City of Westminster. It was laid out in the mid 18th century by the architect William Kent, ...

St George Hanover Square St George Hanover Square was a Civil parishes in England, civil parish in the metropolitan area of London, England. The creation of the parish accompanied the building of the St George's, Hanover Square, Church of St George's, Hanover Square, ...

(now within the

City of Westminster The City of Westminster is a London borough with City status in the United Kingdom, city status in Greater London, England. It is the site of the United Kingdom's Houses of Parliament and much of the British government. It contains a large par ...

). His mother was Lady Anne Barbara Frances, daughter of George Bussy Villiers, 4th Earl of Jersey. He was christened with the names of his grandfathers, John Lambton and George Villiers. At the time of his birth, his father was taking part in the formation and chairing of the Society of the Friends of the People. After attending

Eton College Eton College ( ) is a Public school (United Kingdom), public school providing boarding school, boarding education for boys aged 13–18, in the small town of Eton, Berkshire, Eton, in Berkshire, in the United Kingdom. It has educated Prime Mini ...

, Lambton joined the army in 1809 as a

cornet The cornet (, ) is a brass instrument similar to the trumpet but distinguished from it by its conical bore, more compact shape, and mellower tone quality. The most common cornet is a transposing instrument in B. There is also a soprano cor ...

in the 10th Hussars, but resigned in 1811. Following his father's death in 1797, he inherited an immense fortune, derived largely from mining on lands surrounding

Lambton Castle Lambton Castle stands above Chester-le-Street, County Durham and is a stately home, the ancestral seat of the Lambton family, the Earl of Durham, Earls of Durham. It is listed in the mid-category of listed building, listed building, Grade II*. ...

, the ancestral family home in

County Durham County Durham, officially simply Durham, is a ceremonial county in North East England.UK General Acts 1997 c. 23Lieutenancies Act 1997 Schedule 1(3). From legislation.gov.uk, retrieved 6 April 2022. The county borders Northumberland and Tyne an ...

, which formed the basis of Lambton Collieries. Other properties in County Durham included Dinsdale Park and Low Dinsdale Manor.. In 1821, Lambton earned the epithet "Jog Along Jack" after he was asked what he considered an adequate income for an English gentleman and replying that "a man might jog along comfortably enough on £40,000 a year". Lambton supported educational projects such as the

Mechanics' Institutes Mechanics' institutes, also known as mechanics' institutions, sometimes simply known as institutes, and also called schools of arts (especially in the Australian colonies), were educational establishments originally formed to provide adult ed ...

and the newly founded

University of London The University of London (UoL; abbreviated as Lond or more rarely Londin in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a collegiate university, federal Public university, public research university located in London, England, United Kingdom. The ...

New Zealand

In 1825 Lambton took the chairmanship of the

, a venture that made the first attempt to colonise New Zealand, with his interest being philanthropic. The venture failed at colonisation.Woodcock, 1959.

Political career

Lambton was first elected to Parliament for

in the general election of 1812, a seat he held until 1828, when he was raised to the peerage as Baron Durham, of the City of Durham and of Lambton Castle in the County Palatine of Durham. In Parliament he supported liberal causes, from the defence of Queen Caroline to the removal of political disabilities on Dissenters and Roman Catholics. When his father-in-law Lord Grey became prime minister in 1830, he was sworn into the Privy Council and appointed

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 ...

. Along with Lord Russell he was a leading promoter of reform. He helped draft the famous Reform Bill of 1832. It reformed the electoral system by abolishing tiny districts, gave representation to cities, gave the vote to small landowners, tenant farmers, and shopkeepers and to householders who paid a yearly rental of £10 or more and some lodgers. Lord Durham resigned from the cabinet in 1833. Later that year he was further honoured, made Viscount Lambton and

Earl of Durham Earl of Durham is a title in the Peerage of the United Kingdom. It was created in 1833 for the Whig politician and colonial official John Lambton, 1st Baron Durham. Known as "Radical Jack", he played a leading role in the passing of the Ref ...

. Between 1835 and 1837, he served as Ambassador to Russia. While in Russia, he was invested as a Knight of the

Order of St. Alexander Nevsky The Imperial Order of Saint Alexander Nevsky was an order of chivalry of the Russian Empire first awarded on by Empress Catherine I of Russia. History The introduction of the Imperial Order of Saint Alexander Nevsky was envisioned by Emperor ...

, of the Order of St. Andrew and of the Order of St. Anna. In 1837, he was appointed a

Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath The Most Honourable Order of the Bath is a British order of chivalry founded by King George I on 18 May 1725. Recipients of the Order are usually senior military officers or senior civil servants, and the monarch awards it on the advice of His ...

Canada

In 1838, Lord Durham was named

and High Commissioner for

(several North American colonies administered collectively by the

Colonial Office The Colonial Office was a government department of the Kingdom of Great Britain and later of the United Kingdom, first created in 1768 from the Southern Department to deal with colonial affairs in North America (particularly the Thirteen Colo ...

, including: the Provinces of

Lower Canada The Province of Lower Canada () was a British colonization of the Americas, British colony on the lower Saint Lawrence River and the shores of the Gulf of Saint Lawrence established in 1791 and abolished in 1841. It covered the southern portion o ...

and

Upper Canada The Province of Upper Canada () was a Province, part of The Canadas, British Canada established in 1791 by the Kingdom of Great Britain, to govern the central third of the lands in British North America, formerly part of the Province of Queb ...

Nova Scotia Nova Scotia is a Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada, located on its east coast. It is one of the three Maritime Canada, Maritime provinces and Population of Canada by province and territory, most populous province in Atlan ...

New Brunswick New Brunswick is a Provinces and Territories of Canada, province of Canada, bordering Quebec to the north, Nova Scotia to the east, the Gulf of Saint Lawrence to the northeast, the Bay of Fundy to the southeast, and the U.S. state of Maine to ...

, and their several Dependencies,

Newfoundland Newfoundland and Labrador is the easternmost province of Canada, in the country's Atlantic region. The province comprises the island of Newfoundland and the continental region of Labrador, having a total size of . As of 2025 the population ...

Prince Edward Island Prince Edward Island is an island Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. While it is the smallest province by land area and population, it is the most densely populated. The island has several nicknames: "Garden of the Gulf", ...

Cape Breton Cape Breton Island (, formerly '; or '; ) is a rugged and irregularly shaped island on the Atlantic coast of North America and part of the province of Nova Scotia, Canada. The island accounts for 18.7% of Nova Scotia's total area. Although ...

and

Bermuda Bermuda is a British Overseas Territories, British Overseas Territory in the Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic Ocean. The closest land outside the territory is in the American state of North Carolina, about to the west-northwest. Bermuda is an ...

). A main task set for him was to investigate the political situation there after the

Rebellions of 1837 Rebellion is an uprising that resists and is organized against one's government. A rebel is a person who engages in a rebellion. A rebel group is a consciously coordinated group that seeks to gain political control over an entire state or a ...

in Upper Canada (

Ontario Ontario is the southernmost Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Canada. Located in Central Canada, Ontario is the Population of Canada by province and territory, country's most populous province. As of the 2021 Canadian census, it ...

) and Lower Canada (

Quebec Quebec is Canada's List of Canadian provinces and territories by area, largest province by area. Located in Central Canada, the province shares borders with the provinces of Ontario to the west, Newfoundland and Labrador to the northeast, ...

) and recommendations as to necessary reforms. Lord Durham and his longtime colleague

Edward Gibbon Wakefield Edward Gibbon Wakefield (20 March 179616 May 1862) was an English politician in colonial Canada and New Zealand. He is considered a key figure in the establishment of the colonies of South Australia and New Zealand (where he later served as a ...

arrived in

on 29 May 1838. One of his tasks as governor general was to investigate the circumstances surrounding the

Lower Canada Rebellion The Lower Canada Rebellion (), commonly referred to as the Patriots' Rebellion () in French, is the name given to the armed conflict in 1837–38 between rebels and the colonial government of Lower Canada (now southern Quebec). Together wit ...

Louis-Joseph Papineau Louis-Joseph Papineau (; October 7, 1786 – September 23, 1871), born in Montreal, Province of Quebec (1763–1791), Quebec, was a politician, lawyer, and the landlord of the ''seigneurie de la Petite-Nation''. He was the leader of the reform ...

and the

Upper Canada Rebellion The Upper Canada Rebellion was an insurrection against the Oligarchy, oligarchic government of the British colony of Upper Canada (present-day Ontario) in December 1837. While public grievances had existed for years, it was the Lower Canada Rebe ...

William Lyon Mackenzie William Lyon Mackenzie (March12, 1795 August28, 1861) was a Scottish-born Canadian-American journalist and politician. He founded newspapers critical of the Family Compact, a term used to identify the establishment of Upper Canada. He represe ...

, which had occurred in 1837.Will Kaufman, Heidi Slettedahl Macpherson, ed. ''Britain and the Americas: Culture, Politics, and History,'' Pages 819–820. ACB-CLIO, 2005. His decisions with regard to the

Rebellion Rebellion is an uprising that resists and is organized against one's government. A rebel is a person who engages in a rebellion. A rebel group is a consciously coordinated group that seeks to gain political control over an entire state or a ...

prisoners encountered stiff opposition at Westminster. He lost the support of the Prime Minister,

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

, whereupon he published his repudiation and resignation 9 October 1838 and set sail for London on 1 November.Lambton, John George, 1st Earl of Durham, in the ''Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online'', University of Toronto, Université Laval, 2000
/ref> Lord Durham's detailed ''

Report on the Affairs of British North America The ''Report on the Affairs of British North America'', (, 1839) commonly known as the ''Durham Report'' or ''Lord Durham's Report'', is an important document in the history of Quebec, Ontario, Canada and the British Empire. The notable Briti ...

'' (London, January 1839) recommended a modified form of

responsible government Responsible government is a conception of a system of government that embodies the principle of parliamentary accountability, the foundation of the Westminster system of parliamentary democracy. Governments (the equivalent of the executive br ...

and a legislative union of Upper Canada, Lower Canada and the

Maritime Provinces The Maritimes, also called the Maritime provinces, is a region of Eastern Canada consisting of three provinces: New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, and Prince Edward Island. The Maritimes had a population of 1,899,324 in 2021, which makes up 5.1% of ...

in order to assimilate the French Canadians, whom he considered inferior. Lord Durham is lauded by some Canadian historians for his recommendation to introduce responsible government, which the British government did not accept. It took ten more years before a responsible parliament was established in the colonies. Colonial legislatures had existed in the two Canadas since 1791 but were toothless compared to appointed colonial administrators.R. Douglas Francis, Richard Jones, Donald B. Smith (1996). ''Origins: Canadian History To Confederation'', Toronto: Harcourt Brace Canada. Lord Durham is less well regarded for recommending the union of Upper and Lower Canada, which resulted in the creation of the united

Province of Canada The Province of Canada (or the United Province of Canada or the United Canadas) was a British colony in British North America from 1841 to 1867. Its formation reflected recommendations made by John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham, in the Report ...

. As early as 1844, Lord Durham's intended policy of assimilation faced setbacks, as Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine's party in the House forced ''de facto'' reestablishment of French as a language of Parliament. Once responsible government was achieved (1848), French Canadians in

Canada East Canada East () was the northeastern portion of the Province of Canada. Lord Durham's Report investigating the causes of the Upper and Lower Canada Rebellions recommended merging those two colonies. The new colony, known as the Province of ...

succeeded by voting as a bloc in ensuring that they were powerfully represented in any cabinet, especially as the politics of

Canada West The Province of Canada (or the United Province of Canada or the United Canadas) was a British colony in British North America from 1841 to 1867. Its formation reflected recommendations made by John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham, in the Report ...

was highly factional. The resulting deadlock between Canada East and West led to a movement for federal rather than unitary government, which resulted in the creation of

confederation A confederation (also known as a confederacy or league) is a political union of sovereign states united for purposes of common action. Usually created by a treaty, confederations of states tend to be established for dealing with critical issu ...

, a federal state known as the Dominion of Canada, incorporating

and

, and dividing the United Canadas into two provinces, Ontario (Canada West) and Quebec (Canada East), in 1867.

Industrialist

Lord Durham was a major coal owner in north east England and key participator in the Limitation of the Vend, a

price fixing Price fixing is an anticompetitive agreement between participants on the same side in a market to buy or sell a product, service, or commodity only at a fixed price, or maintain the market conditions such that the price is maintained at a given ...

combination of mine owners. His rivalry with

Charles Vane, 3rd Marquess of Londonderry Charles William Vane, 3rd Marquess of Londonderry, (born Charles William Stewart; 1778–1854), was an Anglo-Irish people, Anglo-Irish nobleman, a British soldier and a politician. He served in the French Revolutionary Wars, in the suppressi ...

, was to be a cause of the

cartel A cartel is a group of independent market participants who collaborate with each other as well as agreeing not to compete with each other in order to improve their profits and dominate the market. A cartel is an organization formed by producers ...

's eventual collapse.

Family

Lord Durham was twice married. He fell in love with Harriet Cholmondeley, the illegitimate daughter of the 4th Earl of Cholmondeley, but then aged under 21 and refused the required permission by his guardians to marry her, they married at

Gretna Green Gretna Green is a parish in the southern Subdivisions of Scotland, council area of Dumfries and Galloway, Scotland, close to the town of Gretna, Scotland, Gretna, on the Scottish side of the English-Scottish border. It is accessed from the A74( ...

on 1 January 1812, then in an

Anglican Anglicanism, also known as Episcopalianism in some countries, is a Western Christianity, Western Christian tradition which developed from the practices, liturgy, and identity of the Church of England following the English Reformation, in the ...

ceremony at her father's estate of

Malpas, Cheshire Malpas ( ) is a market town and a civil parish in the unitary authority of Cheshire West and Chester and the ceremonial county of Cheshire, England. It lies near the borders with Shropshire and Wales, and had a population of 1,673 at the 2011 U ...

, on 28 January that year. They had three daughters, who all predeceased him: *Lady Frances Charlotte (16 October 1812 – 18 December 1835), married the Hon. John Ponsonby (later 5th Earl of Bessborough), but died a few months later of consumption. *The Hon. Georgiana Sarah Elizabeth (2 March 1814 – 3 January 1833) *The Hon. Harriet Caroline (30 May 1815 – 12 June 1832) After Harriet's death in July 1815, he married secondly Lady Louisa Grey, daughter of Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, on 9 December 1816 at Lord Grey's estate, Howick, Northumberland. She was an amateur artist.John Richard Coke SMYTH (1808-82)
Coke-Smyth.com, Retrieved 20 June 2016 They had two sons and three daughters: *The Hon. Charles William (16 January 1818 – 24 September 1831) – see '' The Red Boy'' * Lady Mary Louisa (8 May 1819 – 9 March 1898), married James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin *Lady Emily Augusta (17 May 1823 – 2 November 1886), married Henry Cavendish, son of the Hon.

Henry Cavendish Henry Cavendish ( ; 10 October 1731 – 24 February 1810) was an English experimental and theoretical chemist and physicist. He is noted for his discovery of hydrogen, which he termed "inflammable air". He described the density of inflammable a ...

*The Hon. George Frederick D'Arcy (5 September 1828 – 27 November 1879), later 2nd Earl of Durham *Lady Alice Anne Caroline (16 April 1831 – 15 January 1907), married Sholto Douglas, Lord Aberdour (later 18th

Earl of Morton The title Earl of Morton was created in the Peerage of Scotland in 1458 for James Douglas of Dalkeith. Along with it, the title Lord Aberdour was granted. This latter title is the courtesy title for the eldest son and heir to the Earl of Morton. ...

) Lord Durham died at

Cowes Cowes () is an England, English port, seaport town and civil parish on the Isle of Wight. Cowes is located on the west bank of the estuary of the River Medina, facing the smaller town of East Cowes on the east bank. The two towns are linked b ...

on the

Isle of Wight The Isle of Wight (Help:IPA/English, /waɪt/ Help:Pronunciation respelling key, ''WYTE'') is an island off the south coast of England which, together with its surrounding uninhabited islets and Skerry, skerries, is also a ceremonial county. T ...

in July 1840, aged 48, and was buried at St Mary and St Cuthbert, Chester-le-Street. He was succeeded by his eldest and only surviving son, George. The Countess of Durham only survived her husband by a year and died aged 44 on 26 November 1841 at

Genoa Genoa ( ; ; ) is a city in and the capital of the Italian region of Liguria, and the sixth-largest city in Italy. As of 2025, 563,947 people live within the city's administrative limits. While its metropolitan city has 818,651 inhabitan ...

from a serious cold.

In literature

In one of her occasional political forays,

Letitia Elizabeth Landon Letitia Elizabeth Landon (14 August 1802 – 15 October 1838) was an English poet and novelist, better known by her initials L.E.L. Landon's writings are emblematic of the transition from Romanticism to Victorian literature. Her first major b ...

in her poetical illustration to Sir

Thomas Lawrence Sir Thomas Lawrence (13 April 1769 – 7 January 1830) was an English people, English portrait painter and the fourth president of the Royal Academy. A child prodigy, he was born in Bristol and began drawing in Devizes, where his father was a ...

's portrait, 'The Right Honourable Lord Durham. Now on an Embassy at the Court of Russia' in Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1833', expresses her hopes that Lord Durham be able to persuade the Russians to return to Poland its lost freedom and sovereignty.

Legacy

Names given in honour of the Earl include Lambton County, Ontario, Lambton, Toronto (including Lambton Mills, Lambton Mills Cemetery and Lambton House), Lambton Avenue in Toronto, Lord Durham Public School (Ajax, Ontario, closed), Lambton, Québec, Lambton Quay, Lambton Ward and Lambton Harbour in Wellington in New Zealand, and Durham Heights and Cape Lambton (both in the southern tip of Banks Island in the

Northwest Territories The Northwest Territories is a federal Provinces and territories of Canada, territory of Canada. At a land area of approximately and a 2021 census population of 41,070, it is the second-largest and the most populous of Provinces and territorie ...

). The

Penshaw Monument The Penshaw Monument (officially the Earl of Durham's Monument) is a memorial in the style of an ancient Greek temple on Penshaw Hill in the metropolitan borough of the City of Sunderland, North East England. It is located near the village of ...

in County Durham, on a hill west of

Sunderland Sunderland () is a port City status in the United Kingdom, city and metropolitan borough in Tyne and Wear, England. It is a port at the mouth of the River Wear on the North Sea, approximately south-east of Newcastle upon Tyne. It is the most p ...

, was built in his honour.

References

Works cited

Bibliography

In English

* * * * New, Chester. "Lord Durham and the British Background of His Report" ''Canadian Historical Review'' 20.2 (1939): 119–135
online
* New, Chester. ''Lord Durham's Mission to Canada: A Biography of John George Lambton, First Earl of Durham'' Clarendon Press, 1929
online
* * Reid, Stuart J. ''Life and Letters of the First Earl of Durham: 1792–1840'' (2 vol London: Longmans, Green and Company. 1906)
vol 1 online
also
vol 2 online
* * Woodcock, George. "'Radical Jack': John George Lambton, First Earl of Durham" ''History Today'' 9.1 (1959): 3–12.

Primary sources

* * * * * *

In French

* * * Fernand Ouellet « Lambton, John George, 1er comte de Durham rchive», dans le Dictionnaire biographique du Canada en ligne, University of Toronto et Université Laval, 2000 * *

External links

* * Watch the 1961 short dram
''Lord Durham''
at the

National Film Board of Canada The National Film Board of Canada (NFB; ) is a Canadian public film and digital media producer and distributor. An agency of the Government of Canada, the NFB produces and distributes documentary films, animation, web documentaries, and altern ...

* (imdb.com entry for the above film) * Archives of John George Lambton, 1st Earl of Durha
(John George Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham fonds, R2469)
are held at

Library and Archives Canada Library and Archives Canada (LAC; ) is the federal institution tasked with acquiring, preserving, and providing accessibility to the documentary heritage of Canada. The national archive and library is the 16th largest library in the world. T ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Durham, John Lambton, 1st Earl of 1792 births 1840 deaths 10th Royal Hussars officers Governors-general of the Province of Canada Lieutenant governors of Lower Canada Lords Privy Seal Earls in the Peerage of the United Kingdom People from Mayfair Knights Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath Members of the Privy Council of the United Kingdom

John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham John George Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham, (12 April 1792 – 28 July 1840), also known as "Radical Jack" and commonly referred to in Canadian history texts as Lord Durham, was a British Whigs (British political party), Whig statesman, colonial ...

Diplomatic peers Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to the Russian Empire Lambton, John Lambton, John Lambton, John Lambton, John Lambton, John UK MPs who were granted peerages Persons of National Historic Significance (Canada) Recipients of the Order of St. Anna Recipients of the Order of the White Eagle (Russia) Peers of the United Kingdom created by William IV