The Earl of Carhampton | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Born | 7 August 1743 |
| Died | 25 April 1821(1821-04-25) (aged 77) London, England |
| Allegiance | Great Britain United Kingdom |
| Branch | British Army |
| Years of service | 1757–1798 |
| Rank | General |
| Commands | Commander-in-Chief, Ireland |
| Battles / wars | Seven Years' War United Irishmen Rebellion |
GeneralHenry Lawes Luttrell, 2nd Earl of Carhampton,PC (Ire) (7 August 1743 – 25 April 1821) was aBritish Army officer and politician, who both in public and private life attracted scandal. He was spurned by colleagues in theBritish House of Commons who believed that in the election of 1769 he had played an underhand role in denying his seat to the popular choice, the reformerJohn Wilkes. In 1788 he was publicly accused in Dublin of raping a twelve-year-old girl. Ten years later, his command in the suppression of theIrish rebellion of 1798 was criticised by fellow officers for its savagery, and not least against women. His last years inParliament were marked by his opposition toCatholic Emancipation, and toparliamentary reform.
Luttrell was born inCranford, Middlesex, the scion of anAnglo-Irish landed family, descendants of SirGeoffrey de Luterel, who establishedLuttrellstown Castle,County Dublin, in the early 13th century.[1] His grandfather,Henry Luttrell, had been a pardonedJacobite commander murdered on the street in Dublin—it was suspected by his former comrades—in 1717.[2] His father,Simon Luttrell, was successively titled Baron Irnham, Viscount Carhampton and Earl Carhampton, all in theIrish peerage. His mother, Maria, was the daughter of SirNicholas Lawes 1652-1731,Chief Justice of Jamaica 1698-1703 andGovernor ofJamaica 1718-1722, and the eventual heir to a slave plantationTemple Hall on the West Indian island which, on her husband's death in 1787, passed to her son.[3]
Educated atWestminster School andChrist Church, Oxford, Luttrell wascommissioned into the48th Regiment of Foot in 1757. Two years later he became lieutenant of the34th Regiment of Foot.[4] Father and son, both accounted "notorious womanizers", had a bitter relationship. His father once challenged Luttrell to a duel, but he declined, observing that his father was not a gentleman.[5] Luttrell, described as "strong in body, if not in mind", achieved a reputation for bravery as a soldier during theSeven Years' War,[6] becoming Deputy Adjutant-General of the British Forces inPortugal. In 1768 he became aToryMember of Parliament in for the village ofBossiney,Cornwall.[7]
With the support of theGrafton ministry and of the Court, in 1769 Luttrell stood inMiddlesex againstJohn Wilkes, the radical and popular figure who had already been the constituency's three-time democratic choice. Luttrell lost the poll (1,143 votes to 269) but was seated in Parliament, Wilkes having once again been barred as an adjudged felon.[8] As a result of theaffair, for some months, Luttrell dared not appear in the street, and was "the most unpopular man in the House of Commons".[6]
The government rewarded Luttrell by appointing him Adjutant General for Ireland in 1770. He continued to sit in the Commons, where he described the Whigs in their opposition to the conduct of the American War, as "the abetters of treason and rebellion combined purposely for the ruin of their country".[6]
Luttrell became active in Irish politics and between 1783 and 1787, he sat in theIrish House of Commons forOld Leighlin. He identified with theAscendancy party led byJohn Beresford and is recorded as defending, with an "utter contempt for public reputation", their opposition toCatholic relief and parliamentary reform.[9]
On his father's death in 1787, he succeeded to the earldom of Carhampton and other titles.[4] He becameColonel of the6th Dragoon Guards andLieutenant-General of the Ordnance in Ireland.[4]
In 1788, Carhampton was publicly accused in Dublin of the rape of a 12-year-old girl. Having been paid to deliver a message, Mary Neal claimed she was bundled into a brothel and there assaulted throughout the night by Carhampton. The keeper of the house, Maria Llewellyn, was charged in a case marked by accusations of witness tampering, the death in prison of Mary's mother and newborn baby sister and by the insinuation that Mary was already working as a prostitute. The affair became acause célèbre with the public intervention ofArchibald Hamilton Rowan (laterUnited Irishman). To clear Mary's name he brought her toDublin Castle to see theLord Lieutenant, theEarl of Westmorland. Westmorland, unmoved, pardoned Llewellyn and set her at liberty.[10]
Carhampton was never asked to answer for raping Mary Neal. In 1790 he re-entered the British Parliament as Member forPlympton Erle inDevon.[4]
In October 1793, a younger brother, Temple Simon Luttrell, was arrested in Boulogne and, until February 1795, was held in Paris where, on the strength of their sisterAnne Luttrell being married toPrince Henry, Duke of Cumberland, he was publicly exhibited as the brother of the king of England.[3]
In 1795 Carhampton was entrusted with the breakup and disarming ofDefenders, the agrarian semi-insurgency, inConnaught. His proceedings and impressment of some 1,300 "rebels" into the British navy elicited criticism in otherwise loyal circles.[3][11]
In 1796, with the leaders of the democratic party, theUnited Irishmen, preparing for a French-assisted insurrection, he was given overallcommand of the Crown forces in Ireland.
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He demonstrated still greater ruthlessness in attempting to "pacify" the country and suppress the eventualrising in the summer of 1798. His command had the unusual distinction of being upbraided by his successor as Commander in Chief,Sir Ralph Abercromby for an army "in a state of licentiousness, which must render it formidable to every one but the enemy".[12]
Carhampton was seen by his critics as having "fanned the flame of disaffection into open rebellion" by "the picketings, the free quarters, half hangings, flogging and pitch-cappings" he directed.[11]
In 1791 and 1792, Carhampton helped vote down bills to abolish the slave trade. Negroes, he proposed, only wanted "to murder their masters, ravish their women, and drink all their rum". At the same time, he opposed liftingcivil disabilities onRoman Catholics by abolishing the Test Act in Scotland, and spoke scathingly of parliamentary reform.[13]
In July 1799 he sold his Irish property and by his own later account, he "took no part" in theActs of Union. He claimed to be been "disgusted at the scene that was passing before me", and to have abandoned Ireland because, under a "cowardly" government, he saw "the country likely to become Catholic".[13] When theDublin Post of 2 May 1811 erroneously reported his death, he demanded a retraction which they printed under the headlinePublic Disappointment.[14]
He purchased an estate atPainshill Park inSurrey and lived for several years in relative obscurity. From 1813 he harried the government ofLord Liverpool with the claim thatGeorge III had promised him a secure seat in theCommons. In June 1817, five weeks short of his eightieth birthday, Luttrell found his own way back to Parliament as Member forLudgershall[4] and revenged himself, in the four years remaining to him, by voting with the opposition. This, however, did not extend to joining in the attacks on the domestic spy system in 1818 nor to voting for parliamentary reform in 1819. Moreover, in the wake of thePeterloo Massacre, he supported the government, lauding the use of deadly force against "the Radicals and their system".[13]
He briefly married Elizabeth Mullen in 1759, and had a daughter, Harriet Luttrell. This marriage was later annulled.[15]
He married Jane Boyd, daughter of George Boyd, in June 1776,[16] but they had no children and was succeeded byhis brother John.[4]
Carhampton did have an illegitimate son,Henry Luttrell (1765–1851). He wrote light verse, and was a famous wit and diner-out. Quite from his father's tastes, he was a frequent companion ofThomas Moore,[17] Ireland's national bard, a hagiographer of United Irishmen and a close confidante of leading Whigs.[18]
| Parliament of Great Britain | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forBossiney 1768–1769 With:Lord Mount Stuart | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forMiddlesex 1769–1774 With:John Glynn | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forBossiney 1774–1784 With:Lord Mount Stuart 1774–1776 Charles Stuart 1776–1784 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forPlympton Erle 1790–1794 With:Philip Metcalfe | Succeeded by |
| Parliament of Ireland | ||
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forOld Leighlin 1783–1787 With:Hon. Arthur Acheson | Succeeded by |
| Parliament of the United Kingdom | ||
| Preceded by | Member of Parliament forLudgershall 1817–1821 With:Joseph Birch 1817–1818 Sandford Graham 1818–1821 | Succeeded by |
| Military offices | ||
| Preceded by | Colonel of the6th Regiment of Dragoon Guards 1788–1821 | Succeeded by |
| Preceded by | Commander-in-Chief, Ireland 1796–1798 | Succeeded by |
| Peerage of Ireland | ||
| Preceded by | Earl of Carhampton 1787–1821 | Succeeded by |
| International | |
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| National | |
| People | |
| Other | |
