Royal Naval Biography/Pierrepont, Charles
RIGHT HONORABLE
CHARLES HERBERT EARL MANVERS,
(VISCOUNT NEWARK.)
[Post-Captain of 1798.]
A Vice-President of the Bath Literary Society; a Visitor of the British Institution; and a Vice-President of the Society for promoting the building of Churches and Chapels.
This nobleman’s ancestors came into England with William the Conqueror, and were possessed of considerable estates in Suffolk. Sir Simon Pierrepont was summoned to Parliament in the 9th year of Edw. II. Robert, his descendant, was created Baron Pierrepont, Viscount Newark and Earl of Kingston, by Charles I. He had also the titles of Baron Manvers and Herriz. Henry, his son, was created Marquis of Dorchester in 1645; but dying without issue in 1680, the marquisate became extinct; it was, however, revived in the person of his younger brother Evelyn, who was afterwards advanced to the dukedom of Kingston. His Grace was the father of the celebrated Lady Mary Wortley Montagu, and grandfather of Evelyn the last Duke, who died without issue in 1773, leaving the whole of his property to the Duchess, for her life, with reversion to his nephew, Charles Medows, Esq., formerly a Captain, R.N., upon condition of his assuming the family name of Pierrepont.
Mr. Medows married Anne Orton, youngest daughter and co-heiress of Mills, of Richmond, co. Surrey, Esq.; and by that lady had five children. He succeeded to his uncle’s estates on the demise of the Duchess in 1789; was created Viscount Newark and Baron Pierrepont, July 23, 1796; and Earl Manvers, April 1, 1806[1].
Charles Herbert, the second son by the above marriage, and the subject of this sketch, was born Aug. 11, 1778; and on the 8th Jan. 1798, when commander of the Kingsfisher, a brig mounting 18 six-pounders, with a complement of 120 men, captured after a smart action, la Betsey, a French ship privateer of 16 guns and 118 men, 9 of whom were killed and wounded. The Kingsfisher had only 1 man wounded. Whilst in the same vessel, he also captured le Lynx of 10 guns and 70 men; l’Avantivia Ferolina, of 1 gun and 26 men; and l’Espoir of 2 guns and 39 men. He was made a Post-Captain into the Spartiate 74, (one of the prizes taken by Sir Horatio Nelson, in Aboukir Bay) Dec. 24, 1798; and returned to England in that ship about July 1799. He was subsequently appointed to the Dedaigneuse frigate, but resigned the command of her on the death of his elder brother, which took place Oct. 22, 1801[2].
From this period our officer represented the county of Nottingham in Parliament, until his accession to the Earldom, June 17, 1816. In 1820 he ordered the arrears of his half-pay, amounting to 1865 1. 9s. 6d., to be added to the funds of the Naval Charitable Society, together with all future half-pay to which he may be entitled from the Navy; the present annual amount of which is 261l. 5s. 6d.[3] In the following year he reduced the rents of his tenants 20 per cent.!!!
This munificent nobleman married, Aug. 21, 1804, the eldest daughter of Anthony Hardolph Eyre, Esq., his colleague in the representation of Nottinghamshire.
Agents.– Messrs. Cooke, Halford, and Son.
- ↑ Earl Manvers was the son of Lady Frances Pierrepont, sister to Evelyn, Duke of Kingston, and the. wife of Philip Medows, Esq., youngest son of Sir Philip Medows, Knight Marshal. He obtained the rank of Post-Captain Aug. 17, 1757, and resigned his commission in 1763. His Lordship vas much attached to the pursuit of agriculture; and in 1803 received a gold medal from the Society for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce, for his spirited exertions in sowing acorns and planting oaks on his estate. The Duke of Norfolk, who filled the chair on this occasion, paid him a just and handsome compliment upon the services rendered to his country, not only in war, but during his rural retirement; and observed that he had not only maintained the ancient bulwarks of the empire, but had furnished materials for posterity to form new ones. His Lordship died June 17, 1816.
- ↑ The Kingsfisher was wrecked on the bar of Lisbon, when proceeding to sea from the Tagus, under the command of her first Lieutenant, a few days after Captain Pierrepont had joined the Spartiate.
- ↑ See Vol. I. note * at p. 66, and ditto at p. 504.