\"2nd Earl Fortescue\" Hugh Fortescue Signed Free Frank Dated 1837 For Sale

When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

---

\"2nd Earl Fortescue\" Hugh Fortescue Signed Free Frank Dated 1837:
$399.99

Up for sale the "2nd Earl Fortescue" Hugh Fortescue Hand Signed Free Frank Dated 1837.

ES-906

Hugh

Fortescue, 2nd Earl Fortescue KG, PC (13

February 1783 – 14 September 1861), styled Viscount Ebrington from

1789 to 1841, was a British Whig politician.

He served as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland from

1839 to 1841. Fortescue was the eldest son of Hugh Fortescue, 1st Earl

Fortescue, and Hester Grenville, daughter of Prime Minister George Grenville. He was educated at Eton and Brasenose College, Oxford.

Fortescue (as Ebrington) first became an MP for Barnstaple,

just after his 21st birthday; and he sat for various constituencies almost

continuously until 1839, when he was summoned to the House of Lords through a writ of acceleration in

his father's junior title of Baron Fortescue. Ebrington had entered Parliament

in the 1800s as a Grenvillite connection, belonging to

that section of the Whig

party that supported the war with Napoleon; but in the following decade (in a generational

shift) he broke away from them to join the Young Whigs. Fearing

the corruptive effects of militarism on British society, the latter

sympathised with the liberalising side of the French Revolution: Ebrington would later publish his

conversations with Napoleon in his Elba exile.

After the war, in 1817, Ebrington confirmed his breach with the bulk of

his Grenville relatives, and emerged as a prominent pro-Reform

Whig—albeit one somewhat unusually rooted in a liberal, morally intense

Anglicanism,—which he combined with an interest in political

economy. Ebrington strongly condemned the Six Acts as ”the most alarming attack ever made by

Parliament upon the liberties and constitution of the country” and during

the 1820s, he would repeatedly promote and vote for Parliamentary Reform.

When the Whigs finally came to power in 1830, Ebrington played a

significant part in the passing of the Great Reform Act. After the Commons passed the second bill,

Ebrington convened a meeting of 100 reformist Whigs, urging strong measures

should the Lords reject it, and acting as leader of a pressure group lobbying

the Whig leadership: Ebrington himself appeared on a list of potential

peer-creations that was drawn up to increase the pressure on the Lords. When

the Government resigned in the face of Tory intransigence in the House of

Lords, Ebrington took the lead, despite leadership hesitations, in moving that

the House of Commons implore the King “to call to his councils such persons

only as will carry into effect unimpaired in all its essential provisions that

Bill for reforming the Representation of the people which has recently passed

this House”.

During the 1830s, Ebrington led a strong body of Reformist Whigs; and

he played a prominent role in establishing Whig party organisation under the

new electoral system. In 1839, as Baron Fortescue, he served under Lord

Melbourne as Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, until

in 1841 he succeeded his father in the earldom. He went on to serve under Lord John Russell as Lord Steward from 1846 to 1850; was sworn of the Privy

Council in 1839; and created a Knight of the Garter in

1856. A statue of the Earl stands in Exeter Castle Yard, and his marble bust is

displayed on the staircase of the Memorial Hall in West Buckland School. 49 of

the Fortescue family portraits were saved from the disastrous fire at Castle

Hill of 9 March 1934 with minor smoke damage, but were shortly afterwards all

destroyed by fire when the delivery lorry returning them from the restorer

caught fire whilst parked overnight pending their return to Castle Hill. In

1858 together with Rev. J.L. Brereton, Prebendary of Exeter Cathedral and Rector of West Buckland, he founded

the Devon County School,

situated on land between West Buckland and East Buckland donated by him from his North Devon estate

centred at Filleigh. The school was intended to

provide a top quality education to local boys, including therefore the sons of

many of his tenant farmers; it continues today as West Buckland School, an

independent private school. A marble bust of Earl Fortescue, sculpted in 1861

by Edward Bowring Stephens (1815–82),

stands on the staircase of the school's Memorial Hall. 

Dudley Ryder, 2nd Earl Harrowby Signed Letter 1875 / Autographed Politician

$12.99

CHARLES GREY, 2ND EARL GREY, British Prime Minister, 1832 Steel Engraving 9642

$20.00

William Craven, 2nd Earl Signed Letter 1844 / Autographed

$18.99

Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey Signed Free Front TO LORD BYRON / Autographed

$195.00

GEORGE JOHN SPENCER 2nd EARL, British Member of Parliament, 1830 Engraving 9675b

$12.50

"2nd Earl of Balfour" Gerald Balfour Clipped Signature

$499.99

"2nd Earl of Mountnorris" George Annesley Hand Written Letter Dated 1835

$499.99

"2nd Earl Manvers" Charles Pierrepont Signed Free Frank Dated 1826 COA

$299.99