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Richard Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville, 2nd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos

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His Grace
The Duke of Buckingham and Chandos
KG GCH PC FSA
The Duke of Buckingham and Chandos by John Jackson.
Lord Privy Seal
In office
3 September 1841 – 2 February 1842
MonarchQueen Victoria
Prime MinisterSir Robert Peel
Preceded byThe Earl of Clarendon
Succeeded byThe Duke of Buccleuch
Member of the House of Lords
Lord Temporal
Hereditary peerage
17 January 1839 – 29 July 1861
Member of the House of Commons for Buckinghamshire
In office
1818 – 17 January 1839
Succeeded byCaledon Du Pré
Personal details
Born11 February 1797 (1797-02-11)
Stowe House, Buckinghamshire, Great Britain
Died29 July 1861 (1861-07-30) (aged 64)
Great Western Hotel, Paddington, United Kingdom
Political partyTory
Spouse
Lady Mary Campbell
​
​
(m. 1819; div. 1850)​
Children
Parents
Alma materOriel College, Oxford
The Grenville Armorial produced between 1822 and 1839 for Richard Temple-Grenville, Marquess of Chandos, the son of the 1st Duke of Buckingham and Chandos. The centrepiece of the Gothic Library at Stowe House, it shows 719 quarterings of the family.

Richard Plantagenet Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville, 2nd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, KG, GCH, PC, FSA (11 February 1797 – 29 July 1861), styled Viscount Cobham from birth until 1813, Earl Temple between 1813 and 1822 and Marquess of Chandos between 1822 and 1839, was a British Tory politician. He served as Lord Privy Seal between 1841 and 1842.

Two events in his life were remarkable, given the era he lived in and the position he held in society as a duke: firstly, he obtained a divorce at a time when it required an Act of Parliament; secondly, despite the great wealth to which he was born, he declared bankruptcy with debts of over a million pounds in 1847.

Background and education

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Born at Stowe, Buckinghamshire, the Duke of Buckingham and Chandos was the son of the Richard Nugent-Temple-Grenville, Earl Temple (later created the Duke of Buckingham and Chandos) and Lady Anne Brydges, the only surviving child of the 3rd Duke of Chandos. In addition to being the Duchess of Buckingham and Chandos, Lady Anne was suo jure Lady Kinloss. In 1799, Richard Temple-Nugent-Grenville changed the already triple-barrelled family name to Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville by royal licence to reflect his wife's family.[1]

The second Duke was a paternal grandson of the 1st Marquess of Buckingham and a great-grandson of Prime Minister George Grenville. He was educated at Eton and Oriel College, Oxford.[2]

Political career

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Buckingham sat as Member of Parliament for Buckinghamshire between 1818 and 1839, when he succeeded his father in the dukedom and entered the House of Lords.[2] Two years later, in September 1841, he was sworn of the Privy Council[3] and appointed Lord Privy Seal[3] by Sir Robert Peel, a post he held only until February 1842. He was appointed a Knight Grand Cross of the Royal Hanoverian Order in 1835, elected a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries in 1840[2] and made a Knight of the Garter in 1842.[4]

Slavery

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According to the Centre for the Study of the Legacies of British Slave-ownership at University College London, Buckingham was the beneficiary of a compensation payment due to his family's slave ownership in the aftermath of the Slavery Abolition Act 1833.[5]

Buckingham was associated with "T71/865 St Andrew claim no. 114 (Hope Estate)", for 379 slaves in Jamaica. The claim was made by his father, the 1st Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, but it was denied, as it was subject to a marriage settlement for the heir and his wife. The compensation was instead awarded to the Trustees of that settlement, who received a £6,630 payment at the time, to the 2nd Duke's benefit.[6]

Financial affairs

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In 1847, eight years after succeeding his father as Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, the second Duke was declared bankrupt, with debts over a million pounds (£115 million as of 2024). This occasioned the sale of his Keynsham estate in Somerset in 1841, Avington Park in 1847 and ultimately the auction sale of the contents of the main family seat at Stowe House in August–September 1848, one of the handful of most prominent English country house contents auctions of the 19th century. The financial ruin of so prominent a member of the aristocracy, who had inherited an income of more than £70,000, a vast fortune at the time, became a national sensation.[7]

Personal life

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In 1819, Buckingham married Lady Mary Campbell, daughter of Lieutenant-General John Campbell, 4th Earl of Breadalbane (later created Marquess of Breadalbane). They had one son, Richard, 3rd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos, and one daughter, Lady Anna, but were divorced in 1850 after Buckingham had lost his inheritance. At that time, divorce required an Act of Parliament. Anna went to campaign for women's rights.[8]

Buckingham died at the Great Western Hotel, Paddington, London, in July 1861, aged 64, and was succeeded in the dukedom by his only son. His former wife died less than a year later in June 1862, aged 66.[2]

References

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  1. ^ Mosley, Charles, ed. (2003). Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knighthood (107 ed.). Burke's Peerage & Gentry. p. 2186. ISBN 0-9711966-2-1.
  2. ^ a b c d Stephen, Leslie (1890). Dictionary of National Biography. p. 130. Retrieved 10 October 2018.
  3. ^ a b "No. 20014". The London Gazette. 3 September 1841. p. 2221.
  4. ^ "No. 20090". The London Gazette. 12 April 1842. p. 1017.
  5. ^ "Richard Plantagenet Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville, 2nd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos". University College London. Retrieved on 20 March 2019.
  6. ^ "Richard Plantagenet Temple-Nugent-Brydges-Chandos-Grenville, 2nd Duke of Buckingham and Chandos". University College London. Retrieved on 15 September 2021.
  7. ^ Beckett, J. V. (1994). The Rise and Fall of the Grenvilles: Dukes of Buckingham and Chandos, 1710 to 1921. Manchester University Press. pp. 228–230. ISBN 9780719037573. Retrieved 10 October 2018.
  8. ^ Elizabeth Crawford, 'Langton, Lady Anna Eliza Mary Gore- (1820–1879)', Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, Oxford University Press, 2004 accessed 7 Nov 2017

Bibliography

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  • Spring, David & Spring, Eileen (1956). "The Fall of the Grenvilles, 1844–1848". Huntington Library Quarterly. 19 (2): 165–190. doi:10.2307/3816224. JSTOR 3816224.
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Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Buckinghamshire
1818–1839
With: William Selby Lowndes 1818–1820
Robert Smith 1820–1831
John Smith 1831–1835
Sir George Dashwood, Bt 1832–1835
Sir William Young 1835–1839
George Simon Harcourt 1835–1839 		Succeeded by
Political offices
Preceded by Lord Privy Seal
1841–1842 		Succeeded by
Peerage of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Duke of Buckingham and Chandos
1839–1861 		Succeeded by
Peerage of Scotland
Preceded by Lord Kinloss
1836–1861 		Succeeded by
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