The Earl of Durham | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Lord Privy Seal | |
| In office 22 November 1830 – March 1833 | |
| Monarch | William IV |
| Prime Minister | The Earl Grey |
| Preceded by | The Earl of Rosslyn |
| Succeeded by | The Earl of Ripon |
| Lieutenant-Governor of Lower Canada | |
| In office 1838–1839 | |
| Monarch | Victoria |
| Prime Minister | The Lord Melbourne |
| Preceded by | The Earl of Gosford |
| Succeeded by | The Lord Sydenham |
| Governor General and High Commissioner,British North America[1] | |
| In office 1838–1839 | |
| Monarch | Victoria |
| Prime Minister | The Lord Melbourne |
| Preceded by | Sir John Colborne |
| Succeeded by | The Lord Sydenham |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 12 April 1792 St George Hanover Square, Middlesex, England |
| Died | 28 July 1840(1840-07-28) (aged 48) Cowes, England |
| Political party | Whig |
| Spouses | |
| Children | 8 |
| Parents |
|
| Signature |  |
| Military career | |
| Branch | British Army |
| Years of service | 1809–1811 |
| Rank | Cornet |
| Unit | 10th Hussars |
John George Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham,GCB, PC (12 April 1792 – 28 July 1840), also known as "Radical Jack" and commonly referred to in Canadian history texts asLord Durham, was a BritishWhig statesman, colonial administrator,Governor General andhigh commissioner ofBritish North America.[2]
A leading reformer, Lord Durham played a major role in the passage of theReform Bill of 1832. He later served as ambassador to Russia. He was a founding member and chairman of theNew Zealand Company that played a key role in the colonisation of New Zealand.
George Woodcock wrote Lord Durham was "proud, wayward, immensely rich, with romantic good looks and an explosive temper", one of those "natural rebels who turn their rebellious energies to constructive purposes. Both at home and abroad he became a powerful exponent of the early nineteenth-century liberal spirit."[3]
Lambton was born 12 April 1792 in the house of his fatherWilliam Henry Lambton at 14Berkeley Square inSt George Hanover Square (now within theCity of Westminster).[4] His mother was Lady Anne Barbara Frances, daughter ofGeorge Bussy Villiers, 4th Earl of Jersey.[citation needed] He was christened with the names of his grandfathers,John Lambton and George Villiers. At the time of his birth, his father was taking part in the formation and chairing of theSociety of the Friends of the People.[4]
After attendingEton College, Lambton joined the army in 1809[citation needed] as acornet in the 10th Hussars, but resigned in 1811. Following his father's death in 1797, he inherited an immense fortune, derived largely from mining on lands surroundingLambton Castle, the ancestral family home inCounty Durham, which formed the basis ofLambton Collieries. Other properties in County Durham includedDinsdale Park andLow Dinsdale Manor.[citation needed].
In 1821, Lambton earned the epithet "Jog Along Jack" after he was asked what he considered an adequate income for an English gentleman and replying that "a man might jog along comfortably enough on £40,000 a year".[5]
Lambton supported educational projects such as theMechanics' Institutes and the newly foundedUniversity of London.[6]
In 1825 Lambton took the chairmanship of theNew Zealand Company, a venture that made the first attempt to colonise New Zealand,[7] with his interest being philanthropic.[8][9] The venture failed at colonisation.[6]
Lambton was first elected to Parliament forCounty Durham in thegeneral election of 1812, a seat he held until 1828, when he was raised to the peerage asBaron Durham, of the City of Durham and of Lambton Castle in the County Palatine of Durham.[10] In Parliament he supported liberal causes, from the defence ofQueen Caroline to the removal of political disabilities on Dissenters and Roman Catholics. When his father-in-lawLord Grey became prime minister in 1830, he was sworn into thePrivy Council and appointedLord Privy Seal.[11] Along withLord Russell he was a leading promoter of reform. He helped draft the famousReform Bill of 1832. It reformed the electoral system by abolishing tiny districts, gave representation to cities, gave the vote to small landowners, tenant farmers, and shopkeepers and to householders who paid a yearly rental of £10 or more and some lodgers.[6]
Lord Durham resigned from the cabinet in 1833. Later that year he was further honoured, madeViscount Lambton andEarl of Durham.[12] Between 1835 and 1837, he served asAmbassador to Russia.[13] While in Russia, he was invested as a Knight of theOrder of St. Alexander Nevsky, of theOrder of St. Andrew and of theOrder of St. Anna. In 1837, he was appointed aKnight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath.
In 1838, Lord Durham was namedGovernor General and High Commissioner forBritish North America (several North American colonies administered collectively by theColonial Office, including: the Provinces ofLower Canada andUpper Canada,Nova Scotia,New Brunswick, and their several Dependencies,Newfoundland,Prince Edward Island,Cape Breton andBermuda).[14] A main task set for him was to investigate the political situation there after theRebellions of 1837 in Upper Canada (Ontario) and Lower Canada (Quebec) and recommendations as to necessary reforms.
Lord Durham and his longtime colleagueEdward Gibbon Wakefield arrived inLower Canada on 29 May 1838.[15][16] One of his tasks as governor general was to investigate the circumstances surrounding theLower Canada Rebellion ofLouis-Joseph Papineau and theUpper Canada Rebellion ofWilliam Lyon Mackenzie, which had occurred in 1837.[17] His decisions with regard to theRebellion prisoners encountered stiff opposition at Westminster. He lost the support of the Prime Minister,Melbourne, whereupon he published his repudiation and resignation 9 October 1838 and set sail for London on 1 November.[18]
Lord Durham's detailedReport on the Affairs of British North America (London, January 1839) recommended a modified form ofresponsible government and alegislative union ofUpper Canada, Lower Canada and theMaritime Provinces in order to assimilate the French Canadians, whom he considered inferior.[17] Indeed, he stated in his report that French Canadians were " a people with no literature and no history " and therefore wished their full assimilation.
Lord Durham is lauded by some Canadian historians for his recommendation to introduce responsible government, which the British government did not accept. It took ten more years before a responsible parliament was established in the colonies. Colonial legislatures had existed in the two Canadas since 1791 but were toothless compared to appointed colonial administrators.[19] Lord Durham is less well regarded for recommending the union of Upper and Lower Canada, which resulted in the creation of the unitedProvince of Canada.
As early as 1844, Lord Durham's intended policy of assimilation faced setbacks, asLouis-Hippolyte Lafontaine's party in the House forcedde facto reestablishment of French as a language of Parliament. Once responsible government was achieved (1848), French Canadians inCanada East succeeded by voting as a bloc in ensuring that they were powerfully represented in any cabinet, especially as the politics ofCanada West was highly factional. The resulting deadlock between Canada East and West led to a movement for federal rather than unitary government, which resulted in the creation ofconfederation, a federal state known as the Dominion of Canada, incorporatingNew Brunswick andNova Scotia, and dividing the United Canadas into two provinces, Ontario (Canada West) and Quebec (Canada East), in 1867.[19]
Lord Durham was a major coal owner in north east England and key participator in theLimitation of the Vend, aprice fixing combination of mine owners. His rivalry withCharles Vane, 3rd Marquess of Londonderry, was to be a cause of thecartel's eventual collapse.
Lord Durham was twice married. He fell in love withHarriet Cholmondeley, the illegitimate daughter of the4th Earl of Cholmondeley, but then aged under 21 and refused the required permission by his guardians to marry her, they married atGretna Green on 1 January 1812, then in anAnglican ceremony at her father's estate ofMalpas, Cheshire, on 28 January that year. They had three daughters, who all predeceased him:
.jpg)
After Harriet's death in July 1815, he married secondly Lady Louisa Grey, daughter ofCharles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, on 9 December 1816 at Lord Grey's estate,Howick, Northumberland. She was an amateur artist.[20] They had two sons and three daughters:
Lord Durham died atCowes on theIsle of Wight in July 1840, aged 48, and was buried atSt Mary and St Cuthbert, Chester-le-Street. He was succeeded by his eldest and only surviving son, George. The Countess of Durham only survived her husband by a year and died aged 44 on 26 November 1841 atGenoa from a serious cold.[21]
In one of her occasional political forays,Letitia Elizabeth Landon in her poetical illustration to SirThomas Lawrence's portrait, 'The Right Honourable Lord Durham. Now on an Embassy at the Court of Russia' in Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1833', expresses her hopes that Lord Durham be able to persuade the Russians to return to Poland its lost freedom and sovereignty.[22]
Names given in honour of the Earl includeLambton County, Ontario,Lambton, Toronto (includingLambton Mills, Lambton Mills Cemetery andLambton House), Lambton Avenue in Toronto, Lord Durham Public School (Ajax, Ontario, closed),Lambton, Québec,Lambton Quay, Lambton Ward and Lambton Harbour in Wellington in New Zealand, and Durham Heights and Cape Lambton (both in the southern tip ofBanks Island in theNorthwest Territories). ThePenshaw Monument in County Durham, on a hill west ofSunderland, was built in his honour.
...first published in 1977.
including Thomas Shepherd's Journal and his coastal views, The NZ Company of 1825.
{{cite book}}:|website= ignored (help)Digitised 22 July 2009
-Great expedition is making at Sheerness, in fitting out the Hastings 74, the late flag-ship of Vice-Admiral Sir William Gall Gage, the late Commander-in-Chief on the Tagus, that vessel having been ordered to convy the Earl and Countess of Durham, family and suite to Quebec. The Hastings, commanded by Capt. Lock, is expected to be ready for sea in five weeks. Standard Considerable activity is apparent in the River: the following ships and vessels are preparing for sea, viz. Hastings, 78, Andromache, 28, Volage, 28, Modeste, 18, Charybdis, 3, Pincher schooner, Cruizer, 16, with the steam frigate Medea, and Dee, and steam-vessels Meteor, Tartarus, and Megara.-Portsmouth, March 3. The Gannet, 16, Com. Whish, recently from the West Indies, has been paid off.
{{cite book}}:ISBN / Date incompatibility (help)*Lady Durham's journal. Quebec Telegraph Print. Co. 1915.| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forCounty Durham 1812–1828 With:Viscount Barnard 1812–1815 Hon. William Powlett 1815–1828 | Succeeded by |
| Political offices | ||
| Preceded by | Lord Privy Seal 1830–1833 | Succeeded by |
| Civic offices | ||
| Preceded by | High Steward of Hull 1833–1840 | Succeeded by |
| Diplomatic posts | ||
| Preceded by Hon. John Duncan Bligh (ad interim) | British Ambassador to Russia 1833–1837 | Succeeded by John Ralph Milbanke (ad interim) |
| Government offices | ||
| Preceded by | Lieutenant-Governor of Lower Canada 1838–1839 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Governor General of the Province of Canada 1838–1839 | |
| Peerage of the United Kingdom | ||
| New creation | Earl of Durham 1833–1840 | Succeeded by |
| Baron Durham 1828–1840 | ||
| Post-Confederation (1867–present) |  | |
|---|---|---|
| Province of Canada (1841–66)* | ||
| Lower Canada (1791–1841) | ||
| British Province of Quebec (1759–91)* | ||
| ||
