Hugh Fortescue, 4th Earl Fortescue

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Hugh Fortescue, 4th Earl Fortescue (1854–1932), KCB, ADC, Lord Lieutenant of Devon, Lt. Col. of Royal North Devon Hussars
Hugh Fortescue, 4th Earl Fortescue (1854–1932). Engraving by Joseph Brown from a photograph by John Mayall
Vanity Fair
19 February 1887

Hugh Fortescue, 4th Earl Fortescue

KCB (16 April 1854 – 29 October 1932), styled Viscount Ebrington from 1861 to 1905, was an English Liberal politician who sat in the House of Commons from 1881 until 1892 and later in the House of Lords having inherited his father's peerages
. He was a famous sportsman in the hunting-field.

Origins

Fortescue was the son of

George Lionel Dawson-Damer and sister of Lionel Dawson-Damer, 4th Earl of Portarlington
. He was known by his courtesy title of Viscount Ebrington until his father's death in 1905, when he inherited the earldom.

Career

Education

He was educated at

University Pitt Club.[2]

Local career in Devon

He was a captain in the North Devon Hussar Yeoman Cavalry and became Colonel of the North Devon Yeomanry. He was a

Freemasons in Devon. He was Master of the Devon and Somerset Staghounds
.

National career

He was at one time private secretary to

King George V
from 1910 to 1921. He served as president and chairman of the Territorial Force Advisory Council.

Parliamentary career

In 1881 Fortescue was elected as a

Home Rule for Ireland, he joined the breakaway Liberal Unionists
. He held the seat until 1892.

Purchases Exmoor Forest

When Viscount Ebrington he purchased the reversion of about 20,000 acres comprising the former

Frederick Knight (1812–1897) who with his father John Knight (d.1851) had introduced livestock farming to that previously undeveloped and barren moorland. Following the early death of Knight's son Frederick Sebright Winn Knight (1851–1879) in 1879 aged 28, Knight sold the reversion of Exmoor Forest to Ebrington, that is to say he retained a life interest.[6] Ebrington used the residence constructed by James Boevey in 1654 at Simonsbath, ten miles NE of Castle Hill, as a hunting lodge and for his work in continuing agricultural development. He instituted an annual horse show at Exford, which helped to increase the quality of hunters used on Exmoor.[7]

Death and burial

He died at the age of 78.

Marriage and children

Fortescue married his cousin, Hon. Emily Ormsby-Gore, daughter of William Ormsby-Gore, 2nd Baron Harlech, on 15 July 1886. They had three children:

  • Hugh William Fortescue, 5th Earl Fortescue
    (1888–1958)
  • Geoffrey Faithful Fortescue (1891–1900), died young.
  • Denzil George Fortescue, 6th Earl Fortescue
    (1893–1977)

Further reading

Batten, Richard (2018). A Lord Lieutenant in Wartime: The Experiences of the Fourth Earl Fortescue during the First World War. Devon and Cornwall Record Society/Boydell & Brewer.

ISBN 9780901853615. Archived from the original
on 14 June 2019. Retrieved 12 January 2019.

References

  1. ^ "Ebrington, Hugh, Viscount (EBRN872H)". A Cambridge Alumni Database. University of Cambridge.
  2. ISBN 978-1-107-60006-5
    .
  3. ^ Debretts Guide to the House of Commons 1886
  4. ISBN 0-900178-26-4
    .
  5. ISBN 0-900178-27-2
    .
  6. ^ Reminiscences of Lady Margaret Fortescue, (daughter of 5th Earl) recorded in 2001, in which she states her grandfather purchased Exmoor Forest, i.e. 4th Earl. Lauder, Rosemary, Devon Families, Tiverton, 2002, p.79 appears to be in error when she states the 2nd Earl (d.1861) to have made the purchase
  7. ^ Evered, Philip. Staghunting with the Devon and Somerset, An Account of the Chase of the Wild Red Deer, 1902, p.270

External links

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Tiverton
1881–1885
With: John Heathcote-Amery 		Succeeded by
Preceded by Member of Parliament for Tavistock
1885–1892 		Succeeded by
Honorary titles
Preceded by Lord Lieutenant of Devon
1904–1928 		Succeeded by
The Lord Mildmay of Flete
Peerage of Great Britain
Preceded by Earl Fortescue
1905–1932 		Succeeded by
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