The Earl of Hardwicke | |
---|---|
Postmaster General | |
In office 1 March 1852 – 17 December 1852 | |
Monarch | Victoria |
Prime Minister | The Earl of Derby |
Preceded by | The Marquess of Clanricarde |
Succeeded by | The Viscount Canning |
Lord Privy Seal | |
In office 26 February 1858 – 11 June 1859 | |
Monarch | Victoria |
Prime Minister | The Earl of Derby |
Preceded by | The Marquess of Clanricarde |
Succeeded by | The Duke of Argyll |
Personal details | |
Born | Sydney Lodge, Hamble le Rice, Hampshire | 2 April 1799
Died | 17 September 1873 | (aged 74)
Nationality | British |
Political party | Conservative |
Spouse(s) | Hon. Susan Liddell (c. 1810–1886) |
Admiral Charles Philip Yorke, 4th Earl of Hardwicke, PC (2 April 1799 – 17 September 1873) was a British naval commander and Conservative politician.
Born at Sydney Lodge, in Hamble le Rice, Hardwicke was the eldest son of Admiral Sir Joseph Sydney Yorke, second son of Charles Yorke, Lord Chancellor, by his second wife, Agneta Johnson. He was a nephew of Philip Yorke, 3rd Earl of Hardwicke. He was educated at Harrow and at the Royal Naval College, where he was awarded the second medal.
Hardwicke represented Reigate in the House of Commons between 1831 and 1832 and Cambridgeshire between 1832 and 1834. In 1834, on the death of his uncle, he became the fourth Earl of Hardwicke, and inherited the substantial Wimpole estate in Cambridgeshire. He was a member of Lord Derby's cabinet in 1852 as Postmaster General and as Lord Privy Seal between 1858 and 1859. In 1852 he was sworn of the Privy Council.[2]
Hardwicke married the Honourable Susan Liddell, sixth daughter of Thomas Liddell, 1st Baron Ravensworth, in August 1833. They had five sons and three daughters, including Charles Philip, Elizabeth Biddulph, Baroness Biddulph, Lady Agneta Harriet Montagu, and Lady Mary Catherine, whose daughter Isabel Sophie married Charles Gordon-Lennox, 7th Duke of Richmond.[3]
Hardwicke died in September 1873, aged 74, and was succeeded in the earldom by his eldest son, Charles. The Countess of Hardwicke died in November 1886.[3]
He also supposedly fathered an illegitimate child by one Charlotte Pratt, a serving girl at his Wimpole Hall home. Charlotte got married in 1849, and the following was noted in the marriage register:
The year before this marriage, 18-year-old servant girl Charlotte gave birth to a son, James Pratt, who was baptised on 2 April 1848. The father was understood to have been her employer, the 4th Earl of Hardwicke. "Charlotte... was a Pratt; and she was a picture. The handsomest woman that I ever remember to have seen. In harvest time to see her swinging along the road with a bundle of corn balanced on her head, both arms akimbo, was a study in colour, figure and poise". - A.C.Yorke
There is further speculation that in 1856 Hardwicke, again, fathered another illegitimate child. This time by another servant girl, Daphne Whitby, serving at his home, Wimpole Hall. Daphne gave birth to Charles Whitby on 7 February 1856, his baptism was registered at the Estate church, St Andrew's, on 1 June 1856. The entry in the parish register reads... 'Charles Whitby, son of (blank) and Daphne Whitby, spinster of Wimpole parish. [Father not identified, presumably born out of wedlock.]'[4] Daphne went on to marry Job Male, a labourer at Wimpole Hall, in April 1857.