Hon. Robert Henry Clive (15 January 1789 – 20 January 1854)
was a British
Conservative Party politician.
Early life
Clive was born in the parish of
St George's, Hanover Square
St George's, Hanover Square, is an Church of England, Anglican church, the parish church of Mayfair in the City of Westminster, central London, built in the early eighteenth century as part of a project to build fifty new churches around London ...
,
London
London is the Capital city, capital and List of urban areas in the United Kingdom, largest city of both England and the United Kingdom, with a population of in . London metropolitan area, Its wider metropolitan area is the largest in Wester ...
,
a younger son of
Edward Clive, 1st Earl of Powis
Edward Clive, 1st Earl of Powis, (7 March 1754 – 16 May 1839), known as the Lord Clive between 1774 and 1804, was a British politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1774 to 1794 when he was raised to the peerage as Baron Clive.
E ...
. His mother was
Lady Henrietta, daughter of
Henry Herbert, 1st Earl of Powis
Henry Arthur Herbert, 1st Earl of Powis His Majesty's Most Honourable Privy Council, PC (before 9 April 1703Baptism date. – 10 September 1772), known as Henry Herbert until 1743 and as The Lord Herbert of Chirbury between 1743 and 1748, was a ...
.
Edward Herbert (''ne'' Clive), 2nd Earl of Powis, was his elder brother.
His paternal grandfather was
Robert Clive, 1st Baron Clive
Robert Clive, 1st Baron Clive, (29 September 1725 – 22 November 1774), also known as Clive of India, was the first British Governor of the Bengal Presidency. Clive has been widely credited for laying the foundation of the British East ...
("Clive of India"),
the first British
Governor
A governor is an politician, administrative leader and head of a polity or Region#Political regions, political region, in some cases, such as governor-general, governors-general, as the head of a state's official representative. Depending on the ...
of the
Bengal Presidency
The Bengal Presidency, officially the Presidency of Fort William in Bengal until 1937, later the Bengal Province, was the largest of all three presidencies of British India during Company rule in India, Company rule and later a Provinces o ...
who is credited for laying the foundation of the
British East India Company
The East India Company (EIC) was an English, and later British, joint-stock company that was founded in 1600 and dissolved in 1874. It was formed to Indian Ocean trade, trade in the Indian Ocean region, initially with the East Indies (South A ...
rule in Bengal.
He was educated at
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 ...
and was at
St John's College, Cambridge
St John's College, formally the College of St John the Evangelist in the University of Cambridge, is a Colleges of the University of Cambridge, constituent college of the University of Cambridge, founded by the House of Tudor, Tudor matriarch L ...
from 1807 to 1809, when he graduated
M.A. He was awarded an honorary
LL.D.
A Doctor of Laws (LL.D.) is a doctoral degree in legal studies. The abbreviation LL.D. stands for ''Legum Doctor'', with the double “L” in the abbreviation referring to the early practice in the University of Cambridge to teach both canon law ...
in 1835.
Career
Clive sat as one of the two
Members of Parliament for
Ludlow
Ludlow ( ) is a market town and civil parish in Shropshire (district), Shropshire, England. It is located south of Shrewsbury and north of Hereford, on the A49 road (Great Britain), A49 road which bypasses the town. The town is near the conf ...
from 1818 to 1832,
alongside his brother, then known as
Viscount Clive, and layer for
Shropshire South from 1832 to 1854.
An agricultural landowner in Shropshire, Worcestershire, and Wales, he was an advocate of the abolition of the
Corn Laws
The Corn Laws were tariffs and other trade restrictions on imported food and corn enforced in the United Kingdom between 1815 and 1846. The word ''corn'' in British English denotes all cereal grains, including wheat, oats and barley. The la ...
during
Sir Robert Peel
Sir Robert Peel, 2nd Baronet (5 February 1788 – 2 July 1850), was a British Conservative statesman who twice was Prime Minister of the United Kingdom (1834–1835, 1841–1846), and simultaneously was Chancellor of the Exchequer (1834–183 ...
's administration.
He was appointed to the commission investigating the
Rebecca Riots
The Rebecca Riots () took place between 1839 and 1843 in West and Mid Wales. They were a series of protests undertaken by local farmers and agricultural workers in response to levels of taxation. The rioters, often men dressed as women, took ...
in south Wales in October 1843.
His home was
Oakly Park at
Bromfield, a house redesigned by his friend,
Charles Robert Cockerell
Charles Robert Cockerell (27 April 1788 – 17 September 1863) was an England, English architect, archaeologist, and writer. He studied architecture under Robert Smirke (architect), Robert Smirke. He went on an extended Grand Tour lasting sev ...
.
He was also a
Deputy Lieutenant and
Justice of the Peace for the county of Shropshire and a Justice of the Peace for Worcestershire.
In 1809, Clive was commissioned as a Captain into the South Shropshire Militia.
He continued to serve after it became the South Shropshire Yeomanry Cavalry, commanding a troop at
Bishop's Castle
Bishop's Castle is a market town in the south west of Shropshire, England. According to the 2011 Census it had a population of 1,893.
Bishop's Castle is east of the Wales–England border, about north-west of Ludlow and about south-west of ...
from 1817 to 1828.
He was Colonel commanding the
Worcestershire Yeomanry from 1833 until his death.
A keen antiquary, Clive was author of ''Documents Concerned with the History of Ludlow and the Lords Marchers'' (1841), and president of the Cambrian Archaeological Association in 1852.
Clive was deputy-chairman of two early railway companies in Shropshire, the
Shrewsbury and Birmingham and the
Shrewsbury and Hereford Railway. At a directors' meeting of the latter, on 30 December 1853, he was taken seriously ill and never recovered, dying a few weeks later.
Personal life
Clive married
Lady Harriet Windsor, daughter of
Other Windsor, 5th Earl of Plymouth, in 1819. They had several children, including:
* Henrietta Sarah Windsor-Clive (1820–1899), a watercolourist who married Edward Hussey of
Scotney Castle
Scotney Castle is an English country house with formal gardens south-east of Lamberhurst in the valley of the River Bewl in Kent, England. It belongs to the National Trust.
Scotney Castle SSSI, The gardens, which are a Site of Special Scienti ...
in 1853.
*
Robert Windsor-Clive (1824–1859), also an MP for Ludlow and South Shropshire; he married Lady Mary Bridgeman, daughter of
George Bridgeman, 2nd Earl of Bradford.
* Mary Windsor-Clive (–1873), who died unmarried.
*
George Windsor-Clive (1835–1918), MP for Ludlow; he married Gertrude Albertine, daughter of
Charles Trefusis, 19th Baron Clinton.
* William Windsor Windsor-Clive (1837–1857), who died unmarried.
* Victoria Alexandrina Windsor-Clive (1839–1920), who married the Rev. Edward Farington Clayton, Rector of Ludlow in 1874.
After falling ill at a railway company directors' meeting, Clive died in
Shrewsbury
Shrewsbury ( , ) is a market town and civil parish in Shropshire (district), Shropshire, England. It is sited on the River Severn, northwest of Wolverhampton, west of Telford, southeast of Wrexham and north of Hereford. At the 2021 United ...
in January 1854, aged 65, at the nearby home of the Town Clerk. He was buried at
Bromfield Parish Church, near his
Oakly Park home near Ludlow.
The following year the
barony of Windsor, which had fallen into
abeyance
Abeyance (from the Old French ' meaning "gaping") describes a state of temporary dormancy or suspension. In law, it can refer to a situation where the ownership of property, titles, or office is not currently Vesting, vested in any specific perso ...
on his brother-in-law's death in 1833, was called out of abeyance in favour of his widow, Harriett, who became the thirteenth Baroness Windsor in her own right. She died in November 1869, aged 72, and was succeeded in the barony by her grandson,
Robert Windsor-Clive, who was created
Earl of Plymouth in 1905.
References
Sources
*
External links
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Clive, Robert
1789 births
1854 deaths
Younger sons of earls
People educated at Eton College
Alumni of St John's College, Cambridge
Members of the Cambrian Archaeological Association
Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies
UK MPs 1812–1818
UK MPs 1818–1820
UK MPs 1820–1826
UK MPs 1826–1830
UK MPs 1830–1831
UK MPs 1831–1832
UK MPs 1832–1835
UK MPs 1835–1837
UK MPs 1837–1841
UK MPs 1841–1847
UK MPs 1847–1852
UK MPs 1852–1857
Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for constituencies in Shropshire
Shropshire Yeomanry officers
Worcestershire Yeomanry officers
Robert
The name Robert is an ancient Germanic given name, from Proto-Germanic "fame" and "bright" (''Hrōþiberhtaz''). Compare Old Dutch ''Robrecht'' and Old High German ''Hrodebert'' (a compound of ''Hrōþ, Hruod'' () "fame, glory, honour, prais ...