332
NOTES AND QUERIES, [n s. vn. APRIL 26, 1913.
that Mrs. Creevey writes to her husband in
1805 that she has been spending an evening
at Brighton with Mrs. Fitzherbert (the
canonical, though not the legal wife of the
Prince Regent) :
" We had a long discourse about Lady Wellesley. The folly of men marrying such women led us to Mrs. Fox, and 1 saw she would have liked to go further than I dared or than our neighbours would permit."
Of the four children of the Marquess, Richard, the eldest, was sent to Eton and Oxford, and in 1806 Lord Grenville suggests to his father the purchase of an estate at Okehampton for him. He was alive in 1846, but I have been unable to trace his career. Sir Algernon West in his ' Recollec- tions ' speaks of a room at the Foreign Office being called the " Nursery " because of two lads of 16, one of them named Richard Wellesley, being put there to perform clerical duties. I can find no " Richard Wellesley " among the collaterals of the Wellington and Cowley peerages, and as Lord Grenville was Foreign Secretary, it seems prob- able that this was the Marquess's son. Of course, if Sir Algernon West means that his Richard Wellesley was a boy of 16 when he (Sir Algernon) was a child, it cannot be our Richard, but his narrative is, I think, con- sistent with the lad having been there earlier.
The caseer of the youngest son was suffi- ciently distinguished for a brief notice in the 'D.N.B.' Henry Wellesley was a scholar and antiquary. He matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford, M.A. 1818, B.D. and D.D. 1847. He was Vicar of Flitton (Beds), then Rector of Dunsfold (Surrey), and then, from June, 1838, to 1860, Rector of Wood- mancote, Sussex. He seems to have been on good terms with his uncle, the Iron Duke, for in 1842 Lord Stanhope notes that he was dining at Apsley House, and in 1847 the Duke of Wellington, as Chancellor of the University, appointed Dr. Wellesley Principal of New Inn Hall. Dr. Wellesley, who was an accomplished scholar, was sub- sequently Curator of the Bodleian. He died at Oxford, unmarried, on 11 Jan., 1866.
The elder daughter, Miss Anne Wellesley, married, on 3 June, 1806, Sir William Abdy, seventh baronet, of Felix Hall, Essex. On 25 June, 1816, this union was dissolved by Act of Parliament, and on 16 July, 1816, she married (as his second wife) Lord Charles Bentinck, third son of the third Duke of Portland. She had two sons and two daughters by this marriage, and died in 1842.
The Marquess Wellesley 's other daugh-
ter, Miss Hyacinthe Mary Wellesley, married,
on 21 Dec., 1812, Mr. Edward John Wai-
house, a Staffordshire county gentleman,
who inherited the estates of his grand-uncle,
Sir Edward Littleton, and was subsequently
created the first Baron Hatherton. She
had four children, and died 4 Jan., 1849.
Her mother, the first Marchioness Wellesley,
died in her daughter's house, and was buried
at Penkridge, in Staffordshire, near the seat
of the Hatherton family, so that one may
assume that she remained on good terms
with at least one of her children, in spite of
her separation from their father. Either
the mother or the daughter seems to have
endeared herself to the Hatherton family, for
I notice that since that time the uncommon
Christian name Hyacinthe, which they both
bore, has been a favourite one among the
ladies of that family.
The Marquess Wellesley, after his separa- tion from his first wife, found other consola- tions, for in * The Diaries and Letters of Sir George Jackson ' there appears a letter from Sir George's brother, dated February, 1811 :
" I have not yet seen Lord Wellesley. He never goes to the [Foreign] Office, and is visible nowhere but in his harem. Anybody going to Turkey might have a good chance with him by sending him over a couple of Georgians or Circassians."
He was then Foreign Secretary. In 1825, when he was Lord-Lieutenant of Ireland, he married Mrs. Robert Patterson (nee Caton), a beautiful and accomplished young American widow. Madame Bonaparte wrote to America in January, 1826 :
" I suppose you have all heard of Mary's great good fortune in marrying the Marquess of Wellesley. He is 66 years old so much in debt that the plate on his table is hired ; had his carriage once seized in the streets of Dublin, and has great part of his salary mortgaged ; but with all these draw- backs to perfect happiness he is considered a very great match because he is a man of rank."
The Marquess died at Kingston House, Brompton, 26 Sept., 1842 ; while the second Marchioness, who occupied rooms at Hampton Court, died 17 Dec., 1853. The marquessate became extinct, in default of legitimate male issue.
R. S. PENGELLY. Clapham Park, S.W.
The Marquess Wellesley seems to have had three sons : (1) Richard, born about 1787, M.P. for Queenborough 1810-12, for East Grinstead 1812. Yarmouth (Isle of Wight) 1812-17, Ennis 1820-22. He died 1 March, 1831. (2) Gerald, who was in the Bengal Civil Service. (3) Henry, who was
