Richard Seymour-Conway, 4th Marquess of Hertford

The Most Honourable
The Marquess of Hertford
KG
Portrait photograph by Étienne Carjat, c. 1860 (Wallace Collection)
Member of Parliament for Antrim
In office
1822–1826
Preceded byHugh Seymour
Succeeded byEdward Macnaghten
Personal details
Born(1800-02-22)22 February 1800
England
Died25 August 1870(1870-08-25) (aged 70)
Paris, France
ChildrenSir Richard Wallace, 1st Baronet
Parent(s)Francis Seymour-Conway, 3rd Marquess of Hertford
Maria Emilia Fagnani
Quartered arms of Richard Seymour-Conway, 4th Marquess of Hertford, KG
The Château de Bagatelle, Hertford's home from 1848
Hertford House, home of the Wallace Collection

Captain Richard Seymour-Conway, 4th Marquess of Hertford KG (22 February 1800 – 25 August 1870) was an English aristocrat, with extensive land holdings in the south of England and the north of Ireland, and sometime politician who spent his life in France devoted to collecting art. From birth to 1822 he was styled Viscount Beauchamp and from 1822 to 1843 Earl of Yarmouth.

Early life

Lord Hertford was the son of Francis Seymour-Conway, 3rd Marquess of Hertford and Maria Seymour-Conway, Marchioness of Hertford. He had two siblings, Lord Henry Seymour-Conway, who also died unmarried, and Lady Frances Maria Seymour-Conway (the wife of the Marquis de Chevigne).[1] His paternal grandparents were Francis Ingram-Seymour-Conway, 2nd Marquess of Hertford and, his second wife, Hon. Isabella Anne Ingram (eldest daughter and co-heiress of Charles Ingram, 9th Viscount of Irvine),[1] who was the mistress of the Prince of Wales, later King George IV.[2]

Although Lord Hertford was born in England, he was brought up in Paris by his mother, who had become estranged from his father.[3]

Career

While Earl of Yarmouth he served as a British MP for County Antrim from 1822 to 1826, but he spent most of his life in Paris, in a large apartment in the city and, from 1848, at the Château de Bagatelle, a small country house in the Bois de Boulogne on the outskirts. When shown the extent of his Irish possessions, he is reported to have replied, "Well, I see it for the first time, and pray God! for the last time."[4] His English residences were Hertford House in Manchester Square, London, now home to the Wallace Collection, and Ragley Hall, which still belongs to the family.

In 1842, as the 4th Marquess of Hertford, he inherited a 10 by 14 mile Irish estate in Lagan Valley, including the town of Lisburn, on which some 4,000 tenants (and many more sub-tenants) provided an income of £60,000 (or £5 million in today's money).[5] He was to visit it but once, and then with the wish that, "pray God!", he should never have to do so again.[6] When the edge of the Great Irish Famine reached the valley in 1847 and 1848, the Marquess declined to join the local mill owners in subscribing to the relief efforts.[7][8]

According to the Goncourt brothers, Lord Hertford was "a complete, absolute, unashamed monster" who once proudly declared that "when I die I shall at least have the consolation of knowing that I have never rendered anyone a service."[9]

Lord Hertford died in 1870, aged 70 in Paris, unmarried and without legitimate issue, and his titles passed to his second cousin Francis Seymour (their parents were first cousins).[1] Lord Hertford's illegitimate son and secretary, Sir Richard Wallace, 1st Baronet (1818–1890), inherited his art collection.[1]

Art collection

Hertford was an important art collector. Manchester House (as Hertford House was originally known) was let until 1850 as the French embassy, but from 1852 was used principally to house items from Hertford's art collection. He had left it and the property that was not entailed to his illegitimate son Sir Richard Wallace.[10] Wallace's widow bequeathed the collection of paintings and objects to the nation and they form the nucleus of the Wallace Collection.[1]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e "Hertford, Marquess of (GB, 1793)". cracroftspeerage.co.uk. Heraldic Media Limited. Retrieved 10 May 2020.
  2. ^ William Wallace (1831). The History of the Life and Reign of George IV.: In 3 Volumes. Longman. p. 199.
  3. ^ of), Richard Seymour-Conway Hertford (Marquess; Mawson, Samuel; England), Wallace Collection (London (1981). The Hertford Mawson letters: the 4th Marquess of Hertford to his agent Samuel Mawson. Trustees of the Wallace Collection. ISBN 9780900785252.
  4. ^ Bernard Falk, "Old Q's" Daughter: The History of a Strange Family, Hutchinson & Co., 1937.
  5. ^ Carson, James (1919). "Some Extracts from the Records of Old Lisburn. LXXXI. Stannus v. Northern Whig, December 1872". An Extract of Reflection. Archived from the original on 26 March 2017. Retrieved 24 September 2021.
  6. ^ Adams, Sharon (December 1979). "Relations between Landlord, Agent and Tenant on the Hertford Estate in the nineteenth century". Lisburn Historical Society. 2 (1). Archived from the original on 22 October 2020. Retrieved 6 May 2021.
  7. ^ "The Lisburn Workhouse | Lisburn.com". lisburn.com. Archived from the original on 12 May 2021. Retrieved 11 May 2021.
  8. ^ Craig, W. I. (1960). "Presbyterianism in Lisburn from the Seventeenth Century". lisburn.com. Archived from the original on 17 January 2021. Retrieved 9 May 2021.
  9. ^ Edmond de Goncourt, Jules de Goncourt, Pages from the Goncourt Journal, translated by Robert Baldick, New York Review of Books, 2007, page 154 (14 August 1869).
  10. ^ "The 4th Marquess". Archived from the original on 2 April 2015. Retrieved 16 March 2015.

Further reading

  • Mallett, Donald (1979). The Greatest Collector: Lord Hertford and the Founding of the Wallace Collection. London: Macmillan. ISBN 978-0-333-24467-8.
  • Ingamells, John, Ed. (1981). The Hertford Mawson Letters. London: The Wallace Collection.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Antrim
1822–1826 		Succeeded by
Peerage of Great Britain
Preceded by Marquess of Hertford
1842–1870 		Succeeded by