This is the story behind this tablet in the chancel of Hutton Rudby church:
 |
| Tablet to Charles John Cary, 9th Viscount Falkland, his wife & daughter Hutton Rudby Church |
Captain Charles Cary RN, 9th Viscount Falkland, died of his wounds in the early hours of Thursday 2 March 1809. It was about 36 hours since he had been shot in the lower part of his abdomen and the surgeon hadn't been able to find the bullet and extract it. The autopsy would reveal the full extent of the damage – the pistol ball had wounded Lord Falkland's large intestine and lodged in his spine.
He died as the result of a duel and he died in his opponent's house. He was forty years old and he left a young widow with four small children.
The year 1809 had begun unpromisingly for him with a fire.
In January 1809, he and his wife and their little children were in London for the season and had taken the first floor at the fashionable Warne's Hotel in Conduit Street. The hotel was made up of two houses – numbers 19 and 20 Conduit Street stand there now – and it stretched back towards the church of St George's, Hanover Square.
 |
| St George's Hanover Square, by T Malton 1787 |
On 30 January 1809, Warne's Hotel went up in flames. Some newspaper reports said that the fire started in Lord Falkland's dressing room because a poker had fallen from the grate. Some said it was Lady Falkland's dressing room. One report said that Lord Falkland rushed to the room hoping to save some cash in his writing desk, but was beaten back by the flames and that he had lost £300. Another report said it was £200. There were rumours that Lady Falkland lost all her jewels in the blaze.
When the alarm was raised, she was able to escape from her drawing room with the three children and the baby and take refuge in a friend's house in Oxford Street. Meanwhile, men were dashing into the hotel to save as much of the furniture and contents as they could and servants were running up and down the stairs with as much water as they could carry. Soon the horrified congregation in nearby St George's could see flames through the church windows. There was a mass exodus for the door while someone, with great presence of mind, scooped up the church silver and took it to a place of safety. The charity school children had been at the service as usual – they rushed out into the street, boys without their hats and girls without their cloaks and bonnets. The road filled with people running in all directions.
Traffic came to a standstill as carriages four abreast blocked Bond Street. The fire engines couldn't get through and the Earl of Chesterfield, who was Colonel of the Old St George's Volunteers, sent a party of troopers to clear the way. Earl Percy sent his private fire engine from Northumberland House and the Duke of Portland – who was then Prime Minister and would before long die in office – helpfully sent a supply of ale to the firemen. But first they needed water.
When the engines reached the scene, water couldn't be had – one report said it was an hour before the firemen could get a supply. The flames burst through the windows of the hotel with astonishing speed and the roof was soon destroyed.
Sightseers gathered and had to be kept back by Horse Guards and Foot Guards while the wind, blowing a strong gale, blew red-hot cinders away, over and into Swallow Street and Vigo Lane in a shower of fire. People climbed up to their rooftops to beat out the sparks.
 |
| A fire in London, 1808 |
In the days that followed the fire, while the hotel was rapidly being rebuilt, Lord Falkland and his family settled into Dorant's Hotel in Albemarle Street. And now things began to look up for Lord Falkland. While he was out and about enjoying Society life, his career prospects started to improve.
For two years he had been without a command.
When he married Miss Christiana Anton in 1802 at St Clement Danes, Westminster, he had held the rank of commander in the Royal Navy. A later newspaper report described her as the "daughter of a merchant of the first respectability", so Christiana probably came with a very useful dowry – Lord Falkland was greatly in need of money. The children – three boys and a girl – followed in quick succession.
By 1805 Lord Falkland had been posted to the Sea Fencibles at King's Lynn. This was the force created to keep the coast clear of invasion from the Emperor Napoleon, by defending the chain of forts called Martello towers that had been built along the coast.
So he was stationed in Norfolk on 21 October 1805 when Admiral Nelson's unorthodox tactics won a thumping victory at the Battle of Trafalgar, putting to an end the fear of a French invasion. It was a moment of immense pride for the Navy, so it is no surprise that Lord and Lady Falkland were at the grand Lynn Ball and Supper to celebrate the glorious event.
In February 1806, he was given the command of the frigate Ariadne, and was soon engaged in the blockade of Prussian ports. From the Ariadne he was appointed to the Quebec, a 32-gun fifth-rate frigate, stationed in the North Sea. This was a lucky command in that he took prizes – six sail of Danish Greenlandmen in August 1807 – and that meant prize money. And it was lucky because in September he had a commendation for his "usual Zeal and Promptness" from Vice-Admiral Russell. But it was also an unlucky command because there was clearly bad blood between him and his first lieutenant, a Scot named George Kippen.
Things grew to such a pitch that, in September 1807, Lord Falkland brought charges against Lieutenant Kippen for "disrespectful conduct and disobedience of orders". A Court Martial was held on board HMS Roebuck in the Yarmouth Roads and Mr Kippen was acquitted.
This didn't do anything to help the situation on board the Quebec, and in November it was Mr Kippen's turn to lose patience. He brought charges against Lord Falkland for "drunkenness and unofficer-like behaviour". A Court Martial was held on board HMS Magnanime at Sheerness – it found against Lord Falkland and he was dismissed the ship.
He took his wife and three little children to live on Melford Green at Melford, Suffolk and it was there that his third son was born in 1808. His close friend, the poet Lord Byron, was chosen as godfather and the baby was named Byron in his honour.
So Lord Falkland was in the sorry position of having no ship at a time when his fellow officers were making their names and making money in prizes. He was ashore at a time when the Navy was at its height, and who knew when the war would come to an end and the glorious opportunities of successful action would come to an end?
But shortly after the fire at the hotel, he learned that he had a ship at last. He had been given command of the frigate Désirée, which had been captured from the French a few years earlier, and he was to take Lord Amherst to a diplomatic post to the Kingdom of Sicily.
 |
| Capture of the Désirée by HMS Dart |
Lord Amherst had grown up in the household of Lord Falkland's cousin Lady Amherst, so perhaps family influence was brought to bear at the Admiralty. Lord Byron – who needed to leave England to avoid his creditors – was planning to sail with them.
But then Lord Falkland fell into a drunken quarrel with a wealthy young man-about-town called Arthur Annesley Powell.
When this affair burst into the newspapers, there were various excitable accounts of what had happened. This seems to be the story.
On Saturday 25 February, Lord Falkland had been at a large party at Mr Powell's where a great deal of wine had been taken – these were hard-drinking days. From there, the two men went on together to the Opera and then to Stephens's Hotel in Bond Street. At 3 o'clock in the morning, Lord Falkland and some friends went to the Mount Coffee House where they carried on drinking for another three hours until the coffee-house-keeper refused to serve them any more. The drunken men set upon him and the waiter with the poker, tongs and decanters until a body of watchmen managed to haul them to the watch-house to be brought before the Police Court in Marlborough Street.
The next night Lord Falkland looked in at Stephens's Hotel where he saw Mr Powell. Neither of them was sober. So when Lord Falkland called out to Arthur Powell, "What! drunk again tonight, Pogey?" Mr Powell took it badly. It seems that he didn't consider that Lord Falkland knew him well enough to call him such names. Besides, "pogey" apparently meant someone who lived on the state, in the workhouse (cf this Gillray cartoon) and this was perhaps a touchy subject for Mr Powell – he was a very rich man only because he had the good luck to inherit a fortune from an uncle.
So Mr Powell snapped back at Lord Falkland, who snatched a cane from a nearby gentleman and used it to beat Mr Powell, who was saved by the waiter and some bystanders.
On Monday morning, Lord Falkland went to Mr Powell's house and apologised, saying it had happened because he was drunk. Arthur Powell replied that he couldn't accept the apology unless it was made at Stephens's Hotel in front of the men who had been there – he wanted a public apology – but to this Lord Falkland could not agree. So Arthur Powell challenged him to a duel. It was said that Lord Falkland appeared much hurt by this.
That night he didn't take wine at his dinner in his usual way, and he didn't go to bed but threw himself on his sofa, giving his servant strict orders to call him for an appointment at the Admiralty at 8 o'clock in the morning.
At 11 o'clock the two men, their seconds and two surgeons met at Chalk Farm. Mr Powell was the offended party so he had the right to fire first. His bullet struck Lord Falkland who stood there for a minute or more before throwing away his pistol without firing. It was said afterwards that he had never intended to fire because he knew he was in the wrong, but believed his honour required that he accepted the challenge instead of making an apology.
They put him in a post chaise but he experienced such pain as it began to travel across the rough ground that he asked to be carried home in a hammock on men's shoulders. At this point, Mr Powell and his second, Captain Cotton, were going past the post chaise and they stopped to ask what the trouble was. As Mr Powell lived not far off in Devonshire Place, Captain Cotton suggested that the wounded man should be taken there.
The surgeon John Heaviside was called to examine him, but found that there was little that could be
done. Lord Falkland asked him to go to Dorant's Hotel and tell his wife, who soon arrived to watch at his bedside.
 |
| John Heaviside |
He lingered on in great pain. On Wednesday, two days after the duel, he was visited by his friend the Duke of Sussex, one of the sons of King George III. Towards the end his pain ceased and his death came gradually, in the early hours of Thursday morning, while his wife thought he was only sleeping.
Now the people involved in the affair found themselves in a strange legal position. The practice of duelling had a sort of parallel existence to the world of the law. It was illegal, but it happened all the same. A few months after Lord Falkland's death, a famous duel took place between Viscount Castlereagh and George Canning on Putney Heath – and this was at a time of war, and Castlereagh was Minister for War and Canning was Foreign Secretary.
Sometimes a duel was stopped. In October 1799, Admiral Sir John Orde had been arrested at Dorant's Hotel at 3 o'clock in the morning. Someone had informed the justices that he had challenged the Admiral Earl St Vincent to a duel because of his lasting rage that St Vincent had sent Admiral Nelson to pursue Bonaparte across the Mediterranean to Egypt, when Orde was the more senior officer. The elderly St Vincent – a vital figure in the war effort – was picked up as he came into London from Essex for the duel. But nobody had informed on Lord Falkland and Arthur Powell, and so Lord Falkland died at the age of 40 leaving little money, a widow and 4 small children.
An autopsy was carried out and an inquest was held at which the witnesses who were called – the surgeon, Mr Powell's butler, and the nurse who attended on Lord Falkland – had to pretend that they had no idea how Lord Falkland came to be shot. The verdict was Wilful Murder against some person or persons unknown.
His body was taken from Mr Powell's house to be buried in a vault in South Audley Street Chapel, Grosvenor Square. The Westminster Journal and Old British Spy reported that his remains were carried
in a hearse with six horses, feathers, &c followed by two mourning coaches and six, in which were the friends of the deceased. His Lordship's carriage, Mr Heaviside's, and several others also attended
Lord Byron was very shaken by the death of his friend. He wrote to his mother four days later
8, St. James’s-street, March 6th, 1809.Dear Mother,My last letter was written under great depression of spirits from poor Falkland’s death, who has left without a shilling four children and his wife. I have been endeavouring to assist them, which, God knows, I cannot do as I could wish, from my own embarrassments and the many claims upon me from other quarters.
Lord Falkland's estate was swallowed up by his debts. Two months after his death, the Morning Post carried a notice
Morning Post, 18 May 1809We are authorised to state, that neither Lady Falkland nor her children can be interested in the property of the late Viscount Falkland, now selling by Messrs Robins, the whole of that property being sold for the benefit of the creditors, and it is feared that it will not be equal to the payment of their demands
 |
| Lord Byron c1813 |
He was a gallant and successful officer; his faults were the faults of a sailor, and as such Britons will forgive them
and he did his best for the widow, with the unfortunate result that the poor woman became quite fixated on him and began to believe – as did other female readers of his poetry – that she was the woman he adored. She harassed him with letters. He sent one of them in 1813 to one of her relatives with the comment,
She is certainly mad or worse – I think you must really take some step or she will commit herself in some greater absurdity – I heard from her once before but did not like to trouble you again and soon – but really this is too bad
Lord Falkland's cousin Lady Amherst stepped in to help the family financially, making sure that the boys had careers. The new Lord Falkland, six years old when his father died, went into the Army; his brothers entered the Navy.
Lady Falkland died in July 1822 at Vauxhall after 13 years of widowhood. She was buried with her husband. When their only daughter Emma died five years later, Lady Amherst had a tablet erected in Hutton Rudby church to commemorate them all.
By then Lord Falkland's opponent was long dead. On 5 July 1813, the Hampshire Chronicle carried the report of an inquest on Arthur Annesley Powell, Esq., of the parish of Wherwell
whose horse ran away and threw him off; and his head pitching against a stone it caused such a concussion, that, though he survived the fall several hours, he was totally insensible. Verdict - Accidental Death
 |
| Grosvenor Chapel, South Audley Street, London W1 John Salmon, CC BY-SA 2.0 |
No comments:
Post a Comment