Dictionary of National Biography, 1885-1900/Chichester, Frederick Richard
CHICHESTER, FREDERICK RICHARD, called by courtesy Earl of Belfast (1827–1853), author, was second son of George Hamilton Chichester, third marquis of Donegal, by his first wife, Lady Harriet Anne Butler, eldest daughter of Richard, first earl of Glengall. He was born 25 Nov. 1827, and educated at Eton. From boyhood he evinced a taste for literature, art, and music.
The proceeds arising from his earliest musical compositions were devoted to the relief of the famine of 1846–7. He was president of the Classical Harmonists' Society established at Belfast in 1852. About 1861 he brought forward a scheme for the establishment of an Athenæum in Belfast. To the working men's association in the same town he delivered in the winter of 1852 a series of lectures on the 'Poets and Poetry of the Nineteenth Century.' His health was for some years declining, and he died at Naples 15 Feb. 1853, aged only twenty-six. He was the author of: 1. 'Two Generations, or Birth, Parentage, and Education,' 1851, 2 vols.; and 2. 'Poets and Poetry of the Nineteenth Century, a course of lectures,' 1852, both of which bore his own name. The following books are also ascribed to him: 3. 'Masters and Workmen, a Tale,' 1851, 3 vols. (by Lord B——'). 4. 'The Farce of Life,' 1852, 8 vols. 5. 'Wealth and Labour,' 1858, 3 vols. 6. 'The County Magistrate,' 1858, 8 vols. 7. 'Naples, Political, Social, and Religious,' 1856, 2 vols.; and 8. 'The Fate of Folly,' 1859, 8 vols, (all 'by Lord B******,' or 'the author of "Masters and Workmen"'). But the authorship of those numbered 3, 4, 5, and 6 has been questioned by his relatives. To the 'Northern Magazine' he contributed, under the signature of 'Campana,' two articles, 'A Spirit's Wanderings, a Tale,' December 1852,' p. 297–804, and 'Twelfth-day at Cannes,' February 1853, pp. 838–42.
[Gent. Mag. April 1863, p. 428; Northern Mag. June 1852, p. 117.]