In
1802 George the Third promoted his youngest son Augustus Frederick to the
Dukedom of Sussex. In the normal course of things his wife Augusta would have
become the Duchess of Sussex, his eight-year-old son would be known as Prince
Augustus Frederick, and his one-year-old daughter as Princess Augusta Emma.
Unfortunately, Frederick had married in 1793 without his father’s consent,
required by the Royal Marriages Act of 1772, and George acted swiftly to get
his disobedient son’s marriage annulled, leaving Lady Augusta Murray to give
birth out of wedlock in 1794 and again in 1801. George was more tolerant of his
sons who had children in extra-marital relationships, most clearly true of the
Duke of Clarence, later William IV, who had ten acknowledged children by the
actress Dorothea Jordan and one other child by a different partner. The Prince
of Wales, later George IV, almost certainly had children born to mistresses
though except perhaps in one case the list continues to be disputed.
Prince
Augustus Frederick always considered himself married and though he abandoned
Augusta in 1800 did not re-marry until after her death in 1830. Augusta never
abandoned the claim to be married to the king’s son and never re-married,
though she had a third child Henry (1805-1824) - about whose life I can trace
almost nothing - in the course of a long adulterous relationship with Lord
Archibald Hamilton which appears to have precipitated the breach with her
husband. Nonetheless, she continued to self-identify as wife of the king’s son
and when he became Duke of Sussex began to style herself Duchess of Sussex and
her children as Prince and Princess. This infuriated the King and his court and
they set about making Augusta’s already difficult life more difficult with some
kind of compromise only arrived at in the period 1806-1809: her debts were cleared,
she got a pension and title (Lady D’Ameland) but lost control over the
education of her son. All this has been explored at length, most recently in
Julia Abel-Smith’s Forbidden Wife (2020).
She
was supported by her own family headed by her father the Earl of Dunmore and
was able to make a home for herself in the busy port and fashionable resort of
Ramsgate, eighty miles east of London and overlooking the English Channel.
There she occupied a fairly modest house, Mount Albion, set in grounds which
she extended and carefully attended to. It was a home for her children. In
Ramsgate her self-identification was always accepted as local newspaper
announcements indicate: The British Press of 31 July 1804
recorded that “Ramsgate is expected to be this season uncommonly full …. The
Duchess of SUSSEX (LADY AUGUSTA MURRAY) arrived here last week, to pass the
season with us”; The Oracle and the Daily Advertiser for 7 December 1805
records the departure of “The Duchess of SUSSEX and family, from Ramsgate to
Lower Grosvenor-street”. A seasonal Duchess - even a scandalous one - was an
enhancement both to the splendour and prosperity of Ramsgate.
Elizabeth
Grant recorded her childhood memories of holidaying next door to the family in
her Memoirs of a Highland Lady (1898), describing Augusta’s two children
as “a boy and a girl, fine, large handsome young people, unduly imbued with the
grandeur of their birth. She never committed herself by calling herself or them
by any title: “My boy, my girl”, she always said in speaking of or to them. The
servants, however, mentioned them as the Prince and Princess, as did all the
acquaintances who visited the house” 1.
*
The
Ramsgate post office would have had no difficulty in delivering the 1807 letter
I recently discovered, the address panel of which is my Exhibit A and the
contents of which are transcribed below.
It
is written by Augusta to her son addressed as “Prince Augustus Frederick”,
exactly the kind of thing to which the Court objected. It may be a concession
that the seal on the reverse does not bear the royal arms but is simply
inscribed with a letter “A”.
The
address panel repays some forensic attention. In Britain until the 1840s
postage was generally paid by the recipient and General Post Office charges
were high. But some people - members of both Houses of Parliament and so on –
could claim “Free Frank” privileges using a standard formula: top of the
address panel, write full date and place of despatch, in this case “1807 London
August twenty nine”; then bottom left sign your name in a consistent style
which identifies this sender as Lord Archibald Hamilton, younger son of the
Duke of Hamilton, and since 1802 MP for Lanarkshire. But on this occasion he is
providing a service for Augusta by adding his signature to a letter written in
another hand, a very common favour. She may have been living or staying in his
house and, if not, then with her parents nearby. In the letter she writes that
she has driven a horse several times around the sqre. Unfortunately for
me, both Hamilton’s house and the Dunmore’s home boasted a nearby square.
Whether she was caring for her third child Henry I also do not know. The letter
when handed to a postal clerk was stamped in red to confirm that no delivery
charges should be levied; in this instance the handstamp topped with a crown is
just visible in the middle.
The
contents of the letter are in her characteristic spontaneous and direct style,
something which can be confirmed from other letters and notebooks by Augusta
held by the Royal Collections Trust which always refers to her as “Lady Augusta
Murray” 2. Augusta uses the word “Treasures” frequently to
characterise her children.
Augusta
had loyal servants who stayed with her for years even through financial
difficulties which left bills unpaid. At the end of her letter she sends
greetings to “Mrs Jones” who is clearly in charge of her older son; at the same
time a “John” sends his love to his “Mammy” and I take this to be a John Jones
who is employed by Augusta in London. Mrs Jones may well be the Mary Jones who
appears in December 1793 as witness to the unlawful marriage of Augusta at St
George’s Hanover Square; she was a dressmaker for Augusta’s family; her
husband, who served as second witness, was a coal merchant. I have attempted
unsuccessfully to find out more about this relationship with the Joneses which
seems to have endured and been important to both parties.
In
1830 Augusta’s son was eventually granted a sinecure and the title of Sir
Augustus d’Este by a sympathetic Willaim IV. His adult life was limited and
shortened by muscular dystrophy but included active involvement with the
London-based Aborigines’ Protection Society. It is in that connection that the
second letter in my possession is written to him from Canada with whose
indigenous populations he concerned himself 3.
A
mausoleum, now derelict and graffitied, was erected in Ramsgate by Augustus and
contains his remains along with those of his mother and her parents and his own
sister Emma, later Lady Truro. The title of Duke of Sussex became dormant in
1843 when George the Third’s youngest son died but was revived in 2018.
*
Transcription
My
dearest good for nothing Boy I write to you tho’ you do not deserve it, but you
know from Experience that mothers do not always act towards their
children as they deserve – they are too much guided by affection to be wise,
& this is my case at present. I expected that the day you were confined to
your Room I should have heard from you, but I was mistaken – you never thought
once of writing to me tho’ I had even complained of your silence; My Girl must
behave better than this, - or I shall begin to believe what I have often heard
– that it is a great error to love one’s children too well, - that it makes
them ungrateful, instead of producing love in their hearts, love of duty. My
own most dear, & for long only loved Treasure pray never let Mama feel like
this. – I was very sorry not to be able to leave London this morning, - but on
Monday, I do hope & trust nothing shall prevent my being with you at about
six, or seven o clock in the Evening. – you have never informed me of the
arrival of your Trunk, - that Trunk which I myself packed, according to
your desire, the very next day of my arrival, & most of the day following
that, I do hope you have received it. – The Coachman has just brought me a
most magnificent Horse for driving I drove it several times around the
sqre. & thought it too frisky – however the Coachman was so delighted with
it that I have consented to his buying it for Mammy, but I don’t think she will
allow anyone to be with her when she drives it …... – do you continue to study
Mathematicks – I don’t remember yr. having an Euclid but you can get one at
Burgess’s [a Ramsgate bookseller]. Pray give my love to dearest little
Correspondent [his sister Emma] & Mrs Jones. Adieu my
Treasure – John sends his love to his Mama & you … God bless my Treasures.
*
References
- Elizabeth
Grant of Rothiemurchus (1898), Memoirs of a Highland Lady, quoted
from the 1950 edition published by John Murray, page 105.
- https://www.rct.uk/collection/royal-archives/georgian-papers-in-the-royal-archives/additional-georgian-papers/lady-augusta-murray
- Wikipedia:
Augustus d’Este
Further
reading
Julia
Abel-Smith (2020), Forbidden Wife, London: The History Press
Mollie
Gillen (1976), Royal Duke: Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex (1773-1843), London:
Sidgwick and Jackson
Acknowledgment
Elizabeth
Peters of the Association of Genealogists and Researchers in Archives found the
Ramsgate newspaper reports for me.
No comments:
Post a Comment