William Pole-Tylney-Long-Wellesley, 4th Earl of Mornington
Encyclopedia
Ancestry
The great-grandfather of the subject of the present article was Henry ColleyHenry Colley (died 1700)
Henry Colley was an Irish Member of Parliament.He represented County Kildare from 1698 to 1699. His father Dudley Colley and sons by wife Mary Usher Henry Colley and Richard Wesley, 1st Baron Mornington were also MPs.He was the great-grandfather of Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of...
(d.1700) (or Cowley) of Castle Carbery, King's Co., Ireland. The Colley family originally came from Rutland County in England, having gone to Ireland tempus Henry VIII, where they distinguished themselves as soldiers and administrators. Henry's sister Elizabeth married Garret (or Gerald) Wesley I of Dangan, Meath, younger son of Valerian Wesley and Ann Cusack. Henry's youngest son by Mary Usher, only daughter of Sir William Usher of Dublin, knight, was Richard Colley
Richard Wesley, 1st Baron Mornington
Richard Colley Wesley, 1st Baron Mornington was an Irish peer, best remembered as the grandfather of the 1st Duke of Wellington.Between 1729 and 1746 he represented Trim in the Irish House of Commons...
(d.1758) who in 1728, on the death without issue of his first cousin Garret Wesley
Garret Wesley
Garret Wesley was an Irish Member of Parliament.He represented Trim from 1692 to 1693, Athboy from 1695 to 1699, County Meath from 1711 to 1714 and then Trim again from 1727 to his death....
II, son of his aunt Elizabeth, inherited the Wesley estates with the proviso in Garret's will that he and his heirs should adopt the name and arms of Wesley. He made the necessary formal declaration in 1728 and became known as Richard Wesley In 1746 he was created 1st Baron Mornington, an ancient barony of Wesley ancestors. His sister Ann married William Pole of Ballyfin, Queen's Co. Mornington married Elizabeth Sale, producing as heir Garret Wesley, 2nd. Baron Mornington
Garret Wesley, 1st Earl of Mornington
Garret Colley Wesley, 1st Earl of Mornington was an Anglo-Irish politician and composer, best known today for fathering several distinguished British military commanders and politicians.-Life:...
who was created in 1760 1st. Earl of Mornington
Earl of Mornington
Earl of Mornington is a title in the Peerage of Ireland, since 1863 a subsidiary title of the dukedom of Wellington. It was created in 1760 for the Anglo-Irish politician and composer Garret Wellesley, 2nd Baron Mornington. He was made Viscount Wellesley, of Dangan Castle in the County of Meath, at...
in Co. Meath. In 1759 he married Ann Hill and produced 5 exceptional sons, 3 of whom were as follows. Firstly, Richard Wesley, the eldest son, who became Governor General of India and was created 1st. Marquess Wellesley. The 3rd son was Hon. William Wesley, father of the subject of the present article, and the 5th. son was Arthur, Duke of Wellington. William Wesley inherited the Pole lands from William Pole(d.1778) of Ballyfin, the childless son of his aunt Ann Colley. Yet again, the will of Pole required that Wesley's name be changed to Pole, thus William Wesley became in 1778 William Wesley-Pole. Wesley-Pole, born in 1763, also had an outstanding career, having been an Irish MP for Trim, a Governor of Queen's Co., and a Westminster MP for that Co. also, and having served as Chief Secretary of State in Ireland. He married in 1784 Katherine-Elizabeth, eldest daughter of Hon. John Forbes, Admiral of the Fleet, and produced a son the subject of the present article.
William Pole-Tylney-Long-Wellesley, 4th Earl of Mornington
He was born William Wesley-Pole on 22 June 1788 in London and baptised at St Georges, Hanover Square on 19 July, the son of Hon. William WellesleyWilliam Wellesley-Pole, 3rd Earl of Mornington
William Wellesley-Pole, 3rd Earl of Mornington GCH, PC, PC , known as The Lord Maryborough between 1821 and 1842, was a British politician and an elder brother of the Duke of Wellington....
and his wife Katherine-Elizabeth Forbes.
William assumed the additional surnames of Tylney-Long on 14 March 1812, upon his marriage with Catherine, daughter and coheir of Sir James Tylney-Long, 7th Baronet
Sir James Tylney-Long, 7th Baronet
Sir James Tylney-Long, 7th Baronet was an English politician.The eldest son of Sir Robert Long, 6th Baronet and his wife Emma Child, he succeeded his father as 7th Baronet on 10 February 1767, and inherited the family estates, including the manors of Draycot and Athelhampton.- Career :He was a...
, of Draycot, Wiltshire
Wiltshire
Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...
. Known in fashionable London society as "The Wiltshire heiress", Catherine was believed to be the richest commoner in England. Her estates in Essex
Essex
Essex is a ceremonial and non-metropolitan county in the East region of England, and one of the home counties. It is located to the northeast of Greater London. It borders with Cambridgeshire and Suffolk to the north, Hertfordshire to the west, Kent to the South and London to the south west...
, Hampshire
Hampshire
Hampshire is a county on the southern coast of England in the United Kingdom. The county town of Hampshire is Winchester, a historic cathedral city that was once the capital of England. Hampshire is notable for housing the original birthplaces of the Royal Navy, British Army, and Royal Air Force...
and Wiltshire
Wiltshire
Wiltshire is a ceremonial county in South West England. It is landlocked and borders the counties of Dorset, Somerset, Hampshire, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire and Berkshire. It contains the unitary authority of Swindon and covers...
were said to be worth £40,000 per year rental income - over two million pounds per year at current values - also she had savings of £300,000, and she had been sought in marriage by the Duke of Clarence (later King William IV
William IV of the United Kingdom
William IV was King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and of Hanover from 26 June 1830 until his death...
).
During this period, William enjoyed a political career, first as a Tory
Tory
Toryism is a traditionalist and conservative political philosophy which grew out of the Cavalier faction in the Wars of the Three Kingdoms. It is a prominent ideology in the politics of the United Kingdom, but also features in parts of The Commonwealth, particularly in Canada...
Member of Parliament
Member of Parliament
A Member of Parliament is a representative of the voters to a :parliament. In many countries with bicameral parliaments, the term applies specifically to members of the lower house, as upper houses often have a different title, such as senate, and thus also have different titles for its members,...
for the rotten borough
Rotten borough
A "rotten", "decayed" or pocket borough was a parliamentary borough or constituency in the United Kingdom that had a very small electorate and could be used by a patron to gain undue and unrepresentative influence within Parliament....
of St Ives
St Ives (UK Parliament constituency)
St. Ives is a county constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. It elects one Member of Parliament by the first past the post system of election.-History:...
from 1812 until 1818, and then for Wiltshire
Wiltshire (UK Parliament constituency)
Wiltshire was a constituency of the House of Commons of England from 1290 to 1707, of the House of Commons of Great Britain from 1707 to 1800 and of the House of Commons of the United Kingdom from 1801 to 1832. It was represented by two Members of Parliament , elected by the bloc vote...
, where his wife's family were influential. However, he was principally known for his dissipation and extravagance. On one occasion in 1814, Long-Wellesley held a grand fete in Wanstead House
Wanstead Park
Wanstead Park is the name of a grade II listed municipal park covering an area of about 140 acres , located in Wanstead, in the London Borough of Redbridge, historically within the county of Essex...
and its gardens to celebrate his uncle the Duke of Wellington
Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington
Field Marshal Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington, KG, GCB, GCH, PC, FRS , was an Irish-born British soldier and statesman, and one of the leading military and political figures of the 19th century...
's victory over Napoleon, attended by the Prince Regent
George IV of the United Kingdom
George IV was the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and also of Hanover from the death of his father, George III, on 29 January 1820 until his own death ten years later...
along with a number of other royals and over a thousand leading dignitaries. He was also known to be a friend of the Irish poet Thomas Moore
Thomas Moore
Thomas Moore was an Irish poet, singer, songwriter, and entertainer, now best remembered for the lyrics of The Minstrel Boy and The Last Rose of Summer. He was responsible, with John Murray, for burning Lord Byron's memoirs after his death...
and Lord Byron. As his debts began to mount, he was appointed a Gentleman Usher Daily Waiter to King George IV
George IV of the United Kingdom
George IV was the King of the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland and also of Hanover from the death of his father, George III, on 29 January 1820 until his own death ten years later...
on 8 August 1822. This appointment rendered him immune to arrest for debt, but he was soon to leave England entirely.
Second marriage and custody battle
While in Europe avoiding his creditors, Long-Wellesley began a relationship with Helena Paterson Bligh (d. 7 April 1869), the wife of Captain Thomas Bligh of the Coldstream GuardsColdstream Guards
Her Majesty's Coldstream Regiment of Foot Guards, also known officially as the Coldstream Guards , is a regiment of the British Army, part of the Guards Division or Household Division....
, eventually abandoning Catherine, who died two years later on 12 September 1825. Catherine had implied in a letter to her sisters that her husband had given her venereal disease. Long-Wellesley subsequently married Helena in 1828, but this marriage also proved disastrous. Long-Wellesley, a notorious rake, was generally charged with having dissipated his first wife's property, but this he was unable to do, having only a life interest, although he was responsible for the demolition of Wanstead House, the proceeds of which covered only some of his enormous debts.
He returned to Parliament in 1830, again as MP for St Ives, and as MP for Essex
Essex (UK Parliament constituency)
Essex was a constituency represented in the House of Commons of the Parliament of the United Kingdom from 1290 until 1832. It elected two MPs, traditionally referred to as Knights of the Shire, to the House of Commons...
from 1831 to 1832. He was one of the Tories who broke with the first Wellington Ministry
Tory Government 1828-1830
The Duke of Wellington finally came to power after the abortive attempt at a Canningite-Whig coalition government came to an end with Lord Goderich's resignation in January 1828...
and brought about its fall on 15 November 1830.
In the years following Catherine's death, Long-Wellesley sought control over his children who were in the care of Catherine's two unmarried sisters, Dorothy and Emma. He was especially interested in William
William Pole-Tylney-Long-Wellesley, 5th Earl of Mornington
William Richard Arthur Pole-Tylney-Long-Wellesley, 5th Earl of Mornington was a British nobleman.Long-Wellesley, the son of the notorious spendthrift William Pole-Tylney-Long-Wellesley and Lady Catherine Tylney-Long, was born on 7 October 1813 at Wanstead House, Essex.His father's spending...
, the eldest, on whom Catherine's fortune had devolved. His uncle the Duke of Wellington, fighting one of his furious defensive actions, intervened on behalf of the children to keep the hapless William from his father's clutches. Deprived of the custody of his children by the Court of Chancery
Court of Chancery
The Court of Chancery was a court of equity in England and Wales that followed a set of loose rules to avoid the slow pace of change and possible harshness of the common law. The Chancery had jurisdiction over all matters of equity, including trusts, land law, the administration of the estates of...
, Long-Wellesley was committed to the Fleet prison
Fleet Prison
Fleet Prison was a notorious London prison by the side of the Fleet River in London. The prison was built in 1197 and was in use until 1844. It was demolished in 1846.- History :...
by Lord Brougham
Henry Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux
Henry Peter Brougham, 1st Baron Brougham and Vaux was a British statesman who became Lord Chancellor of Great Britain.As a young lawyer in Scotland Brougham helped to found the Edinburgh Review in 1802 and contributed many articles to it. He went to London, and was called to the English bar in...
in July 1831 for contempt of court; Long-Wellesley invoked parliamentary privilege
Parliamentary privilege
Parliamentary privilege is a legal immunity enjoyed by members of certain legislatures, in which legislators are granted protection against civil or criminal liability for actions done or statements made related to one's duties as a legislator. It is common in countries whose constitutions are...
but his plea was rejected by the committee of privileges of the House of Commons
British House of Commons
The House of Commons is the lower house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom, which also comprises the Sovereign and the House of Lords . Both Commons and Lords meet in the Palace of Westminster. The Commons is a democratically elected body, consisting of 650 members , who are known as Members...
. For some time he was in and out of court on charges of libel, and various other matters relating to his quest for custody of his children.
Decline and death
He led a very dissipated life and lived for a time in BrusselsBrussels
Brussels , officially the Brussels Region or Brussels-Capital Region , is the capital of Belgium and the de facto capital of the European Union...
to avoid his creditors. In his last years he lived on a small pension of ₤10 a week allowed by his cousin Arthur Wellesley, 2nd Duke of Wellington
Arthur Wellesley, 2nd Duke of Wellington
Lieutenant-General Arthur Richard Wellesley, 2nd Duke of Wellington KG, PC , styled Lord Douro between 1812 and 1814 and Marquess of Douro between 1814 and 1852, was a British soldier and politician...
. From 1842 he was styled Viscount Wellesley, and succeeded his father as Earl of Mornington
Earl of Mornington
Earl of Mornington is a title in the Peerage of Ireland, since 1863 a subsidiary title of the dukedom of Wellington. It was created in 1760 for the Anglo-Irish politician and composer Garret Wellesley, 2nd Baron Mornington. He was made Viscount Wellesley, of Dangan Castle in the County of Meath, at...
in 1845.
He died in lodgings in Thayer Street, Manchester Square, London, on 1 July 1857, from heart disease. The obituary notice three days later in the Morning Chronicle
Morning Chronicle
The Morning Chronicle was a newspaper founded in 1769 in London, England, and published under various owners until 1862. It was most notable for having been the first employer of Charles Dickens, and for publishing the articles by Henry Mayhew which were collected and published in book format in...
claimed that he was "redeemed by no single virtue, adorned by no single grace". His coffin is in Catacomb B, Kensal Green Cemetery
Kensal Green Cemetery
Kensal Green Cemetery is a cemetery in Kensal Green, in the west of London, England. It was immortalised in the lines of G. K. Chesterton's poem The Rolling English Road from his book The Flying Inn: "For there is good news yet to hear and fine things to be seen; Before we go to Paradise by way of...
, London.
Further reading
- Hand of Fate. The History of the Longs, Wellesleys and the Draycot Estate in Wiltshire. Tim Couzens 2001 ISBN 1 903341 72 6
- Inquisition Post Mortem: An Adventurous Jaunt Through a 500 Year History of the Courtiers, Clothiers and Parliamentarians of the Long Family of Wiltshire; Cheryl Nicol 2011