Charles George Beauclerk (20 January 1774 – 25 December 1845) was an English politician who served asMember of Parliament (MP) for the borough ofRichmond from 1796 to 1798.
He was the only son ofTopham Beauclerk andLady Diana Spencer,Lady of the Bedchamber toQueen Charlotte. He had two half-brothers by his mother's first marriage toFrederick St John, 2nd Viscount Bolingbroke, namelyGeorge St John, 3rd Viscount Bolingbroke, andGeneral Frederick St John. He had twin elder sisters: Elisabeth Beauclerk, whomarried their cousinGeorge Herbert, 11th Earl of Pembroke, and (Anne) Mary Day Beauclerk, who famously had a long-term relationship with their half-brother Bolingbroke, resulting in several children.
After being educated at Eton (1782) andChrist Church, Oxford (1790), Charles Beauclerk went on aGrand Tour in 1794. He was a member ofBrooks's and theWhig Club.[1]
On his return from the Continent, Beauclerk paid £5000 for the constituency of Richmond in 1796, but his shyness held him back, and he is not known to have spoken in Parliament.
A friend of Lord Holland, his natural political affiliation was with the Whigs and during his two years in Parliament, sitting for Lord Dundas's borough of Richmond, he voted steadily with opposition and for Grey's parliamentary reform motion, 26 May 1797. Like other Foxite seceders he returned to oppose the assessed taxes, 14 Dec. 1797, 4 Jan., and the conduct of Irish affairs, 22 June 1798.[2]
Beauclerk "took theChiltern Hundreds" (i.e.resigned as an MP) in 1798, having sat as an opposition MP for just two years.
AtHolland House the political hostess and saloniereElizabeth Fox, Baroness Holland, introduced him to Emily Charlotte "Mimie" Ogilvie (May 1778–22 January 1832), daughter ofWilliam Ogilvie andEmily FitzGerald, Duchess of Leinster. Much to the delight of Lady Holland and Beauclerk's friendLord Holland, the couple married a month later.[3]Emily W. Sunstein, an American biographer of Mary Shelley, describes Charles Beauclerk as a "shy intellectual" and the marriage as "incompatible"[4]
In 1803 he built hisfamily seat,St Leonard's Lodge, inSussex. Neighbours includedTimothy Shelley at Field Place andThomas Medwin atHorsham. The Beauclerks circa 1820 travelleden famille to the Continent. Charles took the boys to Geneva, while Emily supervised the girls in Pisa.Percy Bysshe Shelley andMary Shelley had made their home in the Italian city, and Emily tried to persuade Percy to come to her soirees, an experience which he did not want to repeat until she called on Mary. Medwin, on the other hand, who was seeking a wealthy wife, was happy to attend her sociable evenings.[5] He introduced her toLord Byron (at both their requests).Claire Clairmont said Medwin and Emily Beauclerk were the two biggest gossips in Pisa - on which anecdotes Medwin based hisConversations with Byron (1824).[6]Edward Ellerker Williams wrote toEdward John Trelawny, attempting to draw him to Pisa:
There is a Mrs. B. here, with a litter of seven daughters, she is the gayest lady, and the only one who gives dances, for the young squaws are arriving at that age, when as Lord Byron says, they must waltz for their livelihood.[7]
The couple are variously recorded as having three sons and six daughters[8] or seven daughters and six sons. Their eldest son wasAubrey Beauclerk, an MP, with whom the widowedMary Shelley was said to be romantically involved.[9] Their second son, Charles Robert Beauclerk (1802–72) was a barrister and lived at Dover House,Warningcamp in Sussex, who at the age of forty married the daughter of a Cuban judge half his age, Joaquina de Zamora, who was a Roman Catholic. Their sons were brought up in her religion, two of whom became Jesuit priests and the youngest, William Topham Sidney Beauclerk (1867–1950), married Lola de Peñalver y Zamora (1875–1972), whose only surviving son,Ralph Beauclerk, succeeded as 6th Marquis de Valero de Urría. Another son,George Robert Beauclerk (1803–71), was also an MP.[10] Their daughter Diana Olivia marriedSir Francis Fletcher-Vane, 3rd Baronet, of Hutton.[11] Their daughter Georgiana "Gee" Paul was one of Mary Shelley's closest friends.[12]
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