Edward Monckton
Edward Monckton (3 November 1744 – 1 July 1832)
Background and early life
Monckton was the fifth surviving son of
Viscount Galway had married Jane Westenra in 1734 while serving as Commissioner of Revenue in Ireland. They had three surviving sons together, of whom Edward was the third, and a daughter.[2] Edward's father died when he was six years old, although his mother survived until 1788.[3] The children of the second marriage lived with Jane Westenra, who had a house in London where she often entertained Samuel Johnson,[4] and where Edward's younger sister, Mary learned the skills of the literary hostess.
Monckton was educated at a private school in Chelsea,
India
Monckton was employed initially as a Writer, a junior clerk responsible for maintaining correspondence and accounts. He rose steadily through the ranks of the Company
Pigot was welcomed by the Whig government and loaded with honours: a baronetcy, closely followed by an Irish peerage. He set himself up at
In 1772 Monckton was sent on a mission to the
It was at this point that Monckton effectively staked his career on an alliance with Pigot, marrying Sophia, the governor's illegitimate daughter, on 14 March 1776.[1] However, Pigot almost immediately precipitated a major political scandal that led to his own downfall. Reversing the company's policy of alliance with the Nawab of Arcot, Pigot declared the restoration of the Raja of Tanjore, whose property had been handed over to the Nawab. This opened up a rift between the governor and many on his council – a rift that rapidly widened as Pigot asserted his own interest in the Tanjore estates. Pigot's enemies carried out a coup d'état on 24 August 1776 and imprisoned him some miles from Madras. Both sides appealed to the Company in London. Pigot was declared reinstated but ordered to return to London. However, he died on 11 May 1777, still in confinement, before the judgement arrived in India.
Monckton resigned from the East India Company's service a few months later and returned to England in 1778. Within a year, he and Sophia had moved into Somerford Hall in Staffordshire, a few miles north-east of Patshull Park. A year after that Monckton was elected an MP for Stafford.
Staffordshire estates
It is not clear whether Monckton had been negotiating for Somerford before the Pigot's fall, but it seems likely that the Pigot connection played some part in directing him to this part of Staffordshire, an area in which he had no previous interests. The children of the Viscount's first wife retained the Yorkshire and Nottinghamshire connections, while Edward's brother John had bought
The Somerford estate had been bought in 1734 for £5,400 by Robert Barbor, of the Inner Temple, and he had erected a substantial Georgian house. Barbor had also bought the manor of Coven in 1744 and joined it with Somerford. Coven was rapidly transformed by the building of the turnpike road in the 1760s and the construction of the Staffordshire and Worcestershire Canal around 1770. Despite these economic advantages, Robert Barbor's descendants seem to have got into financial difficulties and were several times in danger of losing the house before Monckton bought it.[11] The purchase of the Hall brought him both the manor of Somerford and that of Coven, together making up the south-eastern corner of Brewood parish.
Monckton soon set about improving the house, having a large porch built and stucco applied to the walls. He planted large numbers of trees to replace the timber taken by the previous cash-strapped owners and then built or refurbished large numbers of farm buildings. A waterworks was installed on the nearby River Penk to bring water to the house, where it was stored in a rooftop reservoir, and the surplus from the system was run out into the gardens and grounds to water flowers and strawberry beds.
Monckton's improving zeal soon brought him into conflict with his neighbours, as the road from Brewood to Wolverhampton passed close to Somerford Hall and through its grounds, which Monckton was reforesting and improving. At a hotly contested vestry meeting in 1781 he tried to have it routed further south, to cross the Penk at Somerford Mill. The existing bridge at that point was of good quality but suitable only for foot traffic, and its maintenance was Monckton's responsibility. It emerged that, even if he paid for a new route, the cost of maintaining a new carriage bridge might in future fall on the parish, which the other members of the vestry refused to countenance. Later Monckton came up with a compromise scheme. He agreed to divert the road to the north of his property instead and paid for the construction of a new, straighter section to Four Ashes, on the main turnpike road between Wolverhampton and Stafford.
Monckton soon began to extend his property interests in the area, buying several more estates in Brewood parish. First seems to have been Aspley, a small estate near Coven, on the bank of the canal, which he acquired shortly after Somerford itself. In 1780 he leased the Deanery Manor of Brewood from the Dean of Lichfield Cathedral, giving him land and houses around the centre of the town: this land was to remain leased by the Monckton family until 1903, after which they bought it outright. Monckton bought Engleton Hall, on the Penk north of Somerford, in 1785. Engleton Hall was intended as a home for Monckton heirs, starting with his son, also called Edward, but it was later let as a farm. With it came Brewood Hall, a substantial 17th century house on the eastern edge of Brewood, which Monckton earmarked in a jointure as a home for his wife after his death: in fact, Sophia never moved into it. The purchase did not include all of the Engleton estate, which had been divided in two as long ago as the 14th century, and Monckton was not able to purchase the rest of it until 1811.
MP for Stafford
Monckton first contested the Stafford Borough constituency in the general election of 12 September 1780. Stafford was generally described as “venal” and it was very expensive to contest.
The overarching issue in the early years was the
One of the coalition ministry's most important measures was an East India Bill, designed to
Over the next few years, Monckton consistently voted against
The outbreak of the
Monckton too tended to support the government throughout the French Revolutionary and
Monckton was returned unopposed, with Sheridan, in 1796 and 1802. In 1806 and 1807 he was elected alongside Richard Mansel Philipps, a radical Whig who was soon mired in scandal over debt and fraud.[13] In 1812 Monckton announced his retirement from Parliament and did not stand for election again.
Later years
Monckton devoted his final two decades to his estates and life in Staffordshire. He was an active and enthusiastic
On his death, Monckton was succeeded in his estates by his son Edward. He left his Carnatic stock to be invested for the instruction of the people of Madras in Christianity.
Family
Edward Monckton was married only once: to Sophia, the illegitimate daughter of George Pigot. Sophia died in 1834. Together they had 14 children and all but one survived into adulthood. These included his heir, also called Edward, who died unmarried and childless in 1848; Henry, who became a general in the army, extended the family estates by buying Stretton Hall, Staffordshire, and inherited the remainder on the death of his brother; and John, who inherited his uncle's seat of Fineshade Abbey.
References
- ^ a b c d e The History of Parliament: Members 1754–1790 – MONCKTON, Hon. Edward
- ^ University of Nottingham: Biography of John Monckton, 1st Viscount Galway (1695–1751)
- ^ a b "Inscription in Brewood parish church". Archived from the original on 19 November 2008. Retrieved 12 March 2012.
- ^ James Boswell: Life of Johnson, vol. 4, at Project Gutenberg
- ^ a b The History of Parliament: Members 1790–1820 – MONCKTON, Hon. Edward
- ^ J.S. Cockburn, H.P.F. King, K.G.T. McDonnell (Editors): Victoria County History – Middlesex, vol. 1, chap. 38.
- ^ Australian Institute of Genealogical Studies Inc.: The East India Company & British India
- ^ The History of Parliament: Members 1754–1790
- ISBN 978-1-86064-171-8. Retrieved 20 April 2012.
- ^ Capt P.C.G. Webster, The Records of the Queen's Own Royal Regiment of Staffordshire Yeomanry, Lichfield: Lomax, 1870, pp. 2–72; Appendix.
- ^ Victoria County History – A History of the County of Stafford: Volume 5: East Cuttlestone hundred, L. Margaret Midgley (editor), 1959, chapter 8: Brewood, Section 3: Manors
- ^ a b c The History of Parliament: Constituencies 1754–1790 – Stafford
- ^ The History of Parliament: Members 1754–1790 – MANSEL PHILIPPS, Richard (1768–1844)
- ^ Leamington Spa Courier 4 July 1829 and Aris's Birmingham Gazette 6 July 1829.
- ^ Victoria County History – Staffordshire, volume 5, chapter 8, section 1
- ^ Coven at A Vision of Britain through Time
- ^ Victoria County History – Staffordshire, volume 5, chapter 9, section 3