Sir
Edward Cust
KCH
Sir Edward Cust, 1840s portrait
Born17 March 1794
London, Middlesex
Died14 January 1878
NationalityBritish
Alma mater
Occupations
SpouseMary Anne Boode
Children6
Parent(s)Brownlow Cust, 1st Baron Brownlow
Frances Bankes

Sir Edward Cust, 1st Baronet, KCH (17 March 1794 – 14 January 1878) was a British soldier, politician and courtier.

Early life

He was born in Hill Street, Berkeley Square, London, Middlesex, in 1794, the sixth son of the Brownlow Cust, 1st Baron Brownlow and his second wife Frances Bankes (1756–1847).[1] His older brothers were John Cust, 1st Earl Brownlow, Peregrine Cust, Rev. Henry Cockayne Cust and William Cust.[2]

Cust was educated at Eton College, and the Royal Military College. In 1810, he joined the 16th Regiment of Light Dragoons as a cadet and was Captain of the 5th Regiment of Dragoon Guards from 1816 and Major of the 55th Regiment of Foot from 1821.[3]

Parliamentarian

From 1818, Cust sat in Parliament as member of parliament for Grantham until 1826 and then for Lostwithiel from 1826 to 1832.[3] As a Member of Parliament, he raised concerns about the management of public architectural projects, particular the works at Buckingham House.[4] In 1831, he was knighted and appointed a KCH by William IV for his military service.[3] In February 1834 he was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society.[5]

After the Burning of Parliament in 1834, Cust proposed that the new Houses of Parliament should be to a design chosen in an open competition. He prevailed on Sir Robert Peel, Prime Minister in late 1834, and a competition was held.[6] Cust in this way successfully opposed the appointment of Robert Smirke to be the architect. Peel was replaced by Lord Melbourne as Prime Minister in April 1835, and it was decided to proceed with the competition along Cust's lines, with the style limited to Elizabethan or Gothic, so rejecting the neo-classical.[7]

In 1835 Cust was appointed one of the Royal Commissioners for reporting on the plans offered. The others, all amateurs from the point of view of architectural knowledge, were Charles Hanbury-Tracy, Thomas Liddell, 1st Baron Ravensworth, Samuel Rogers and George Vivian. The successful design was that of Charles Barry, whom Cust knew from the Travellers' Club.[7]

Courtier

In 1816 Cust became equerry to Prince Leopold of Saxe-Coburg, who that year married Princess Charlotte of Wales.[4] When Leopold became the first King of the Belgians in 1831, Cust went to Belgium. Leopold made him a grand’officer in his Order of Leopold in 1855.

In 1845, Queen Victoria appointed Cust Assistant Master of the Ceremonies and he was promoted to Master of the Ceremonies in 1847.[3]

New Zealand

Cust joined the Canterbury Association on 27 May 1848, but resigned again on 22 November of that year.[3]

In 1849, the Cust River in Canterbury was named after Sir Edward Cust. The township of Cust was in turn named after the river.[8]

Later life

In 1859 Cust was given the colonelcy for life of the 16th (The Queen's) Regiment of (Light) Dragoons (Lancers).[9] In 1876, he was made a baronet.[10][3]

Bibliography

Cust wrote:

Family

Mary Anne Cust, 1836 engraving

Cust married in 1821 Mary Anne Boode, daughter of Lewis William Boode of Peover Hall in Cheshire. They had a son and five daughters.[4] The Boode family were Dutch planters in Demerara, Lewis William being originally Lodewijk Willem Boode, and the brother of Andreas Christian Boode (1763–1844).[11] Mary inherited from her mother Margaret, daughter of the Rev. Thomas Dannett of Liverpool and a widow by 1802, the Greenwich Park estate in Demerara, on her death c.1827.[12] Before Margaret's death, in the 1823–4 parliamentary session, Cust was appointed to the committee of the West India planters and merchants there.[4]

Mary Cust was lady of the bedchamber to Princess Victoria of Saxe-Coburg-Saalfeld. A further family property inherited from her mother was Leasowe Castle. Edward Cust received half the compensation for the enslaved people on the Greenwich Park estate under the Slavery Abolition Act 1833.[13]

The couple had a son and five daughters.[4] The children were:

References

  1. ^ Lunt, James. "Cust, Sir Edward, baronet". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/6973. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
  2. ^ Mosley, Charles, ed. (2003). Burke's Peerage, Baronetage & Knighthood (107 ed.). Burke's Peerage & Gentry. p. 544. ISBN 0-9711966-2-1.
  3. ^ a b c d e f Bain, Rev. Michael (2007). The Canterbury Association (1848-1852): A Study of Its Members' Connections (PDF). Christchurch: Project Canterbury. pp. 27–28. Retrieved 22 September 2012.
  4. ^ a b c d e "Cust, Hon. Edward (1794-1878), of Leasowe Castle, Birkenhead, Cheshire and 1 New Gardens, Mdx., History of Parliament Online". histparl.ac.uk.
  5. ^ "Library and Archive Catalogue". Royal Society. Retrieved 26 December 2010.[permanent dead link]
  6. ^ Gillin, Edward J. (2017). The Victorian Palace of Science. Cambridge University Press. pp. 25–27. ISBN 978-1-108-41966-6.
  7. ^ a b W. J. Rorabaugh, Politics and the Architectural Competition for the Houses of Parliament, 1834–1837, Victorian Studies Vol. 17, No. 2 (Dec., 1973), pp. 155–175, at pp. 164–167. Published by: Indiana University Press JSTOR 3826182
  8. ^ Reed, A. W. (2010). Peter Dowling (ed.). Place Names of New Zealand. Rosedale, North Shore: Raupo. p. 94. ISBN 9780143204107.
  9. ^ Mills, T.F. "16th The Queen's Lancers". regiments.org. Archived from the original on 16 October 2007. Retrieved 3 October 2007.
  10. ^ "No. 24299". The London Gazette. 25 February 1876. p. 884.
  11. ^ "Andreas Christian Boode (1763–1844), Legacies of British Slave-ownership". ucl.ac.uk.
  12. ^ "Margaret Boode (née Dannett) ???? - 1827 Legacies of British Slave-ownership". ucl.ac.uk.
  13. ^ "General Sir Edward Cust 1st Bart., 17th Mar 1794 – 14th Jan 1878, Legacies of British Slave-ownership". ucl.ac.uk.
  14. ^ a b c The Court Magazine and Belle Assemblée. Edward Bull. 1836. p. 134.
  15. ^ a b c Burke, Bernard (1903). Ashworth P. Burke (ed.). A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage, the Privy Council, Knightage and Companionage (65th ed.). London: Harrison and Sons. p. 412.
  16. ^ Sylvanus Urban (1863). Gentleman's Magazine, Or Monthly Intelligencer. Edward Cave. p. 522.
  17. ^ Debrett's illustrated baronetage and knightage (and companionage) of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. 1879. p. 319.
  18. ^ Hughes, John (1906). Liverpool banks [and] bankers, 1760-1837, a history of the circumstances which gave rise to the industry, and of the men who founded and developed it. Liverpool: Young.
  19. ^ Walford, Edward (1860). The county families of the United Kingdom; or, Royal manual of the titled and untitled aristocracy of England, Wales, Scotland, and Ireland. Dalcassian Publishing Company. p. 1472.
  20. ^ a b c Debrett's illustrated baronetage and knightage (and companionage) of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland. 1879.
  21. ^ "Wilbraham Egerton, 1st Sep 1781 – 25th Apr 1856, Legacies of British Slave-ownership". ucl.ac.uk.
  22. ^ O'Byrne, William R. (1849). "Egerton, Charles Randle" . A Naval Biographical Dictionary. London: John Murray. p. 328.

External links

Parliament of the United Kingdom Preceded bySir William Welby, Bt Robert Smith Member of Parliament for Grantham 1818–1826 With: Sir William Welby, Bt 1818–1820James Hughes 1820Sir Montague Cholmeley, 1st Bt 1820–1826 Succeeded byMontague Cholmeley Frederick Tollemache Preceded bySir Alexander Grant, Bt Viscount Valletort Member of Parliament for Lostwithiel 1826–1832 With: Viscount Valletort 1826–1830Hon. William Vesey-FitzGerald 1830Viscount Valletort 1830–1832 Constituency disenfranchised Court offices Preceded byThomas Hyde Assistant Master of the Ceremonies 1845–1847 Succeeded byWilliam Cornwall Preceded bySir Robert Chester Master of the Ceremonies 1847–1876 Succeeded bySir Francis Seymour Military offices Preceded bySir Joseph Thackwell Colonel of the 16th Lancers 1859–1878 Succeeded bySir Charles Shute Baronetage of the United Kingdom New creation Baronet(of Leasowe Castle) 1876–1878 Succeeded byLeopold Cust Professional and academic associations Preceded byCharles, 3rd Earl of Sefton President of the Historic Society of Lancashire and Cheshire 1855–63 Succeeded byWilliam Ewart Gladstone
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