George Robinson, 1st Marquess of Ripon

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
(Redirected from
Lord Ripon
)

Hereditary Peerage
Preceded byThe 1st Earl of Ripon
Succeeded byThe 2nd Marquess of Ripon
Member of Parliament
for West Riding of Yorkshire
In office
24 April 1857 – 28 January 1859
Preceded byRichard Cobden
Succeeded byJohn William Ramsden
Member of Parliament
for Huddersfield
In office
22 April 1853 – 24 April 1857
Preceded byWilliam Crompton-Stansfield
Succeeded byEdward Akroyd
Member of Parliament
for Kingston upon Hull
In office
31 July 1852 – March 1853
Preceded byMatthew Talbot Baines
Succeeded byWilliam Digby Seymour
Personal details
Born(1827-10-24)24 October 1827
10 Downing Street, London
Died9 July 1909(1909-07-09) (aged 81)
Studley Royal Park, North Yorkshire
NationalityBritish
Political partyLiberal
Spouse
Henrietta Vyner
(m. 1851; died 1907)
Children
Parents

George Frederick Samuel Robinson, 1st Marquess of Ripon,

Viceroy and Governor General of India who served in every Liberal
cabinet between 1861 and 1908.

Background and education

Ripon was born at 10 Downing Street, London, the second son of Prime Minister F. J. Robinson, 1st Viscount Goderich (who was created Earl of Ripon in 1833), by his wife Lady Sarah (née Hobart), daughter of the Earl of Buckinghamshire. He was educated privately, attending neither school nor college.[1]

He was awarded the honorary degree of DCL by the University of Oxford in 1870.[2]

Diplomatic and political career, 1852–1880

Ripon served on

House of Commons as one of the two members for Hull in 1852.[3] Both he and his party colleague James Clay[4] were unseated in 1853 by petition over claims of widespread corruption in their election, of which they were exonerated of any knowledge.[4]: 49–53  He was returned for Huddersfield later in 1853[5] and for the West Riding of Yorkshire in 1857.[6]

In 1859 he succeeded his father as second Earl of Ripon, taking his seat in the

President of the first day of the Co-operative Congress.[10]

Viceroy of India, 1880–1884

Lord Ripon by George Frederic Watts

When Gladstone returned to power in 1880 he appointed Ripon

Viceroy of India,[11] an office he held until 1884. During his time in India, Ripon introduced legislation (the Ilbert Bill, named for the legal member of the Viceroy's Executive Council, Courtenay Ilbert) that would have granted native Indians more legal rights, including the right of Indian judges to judge Europeans in court. Though progressive in its intent, the legislation was scuppered by Europeans living in India who did not want to be tried by a native judge.[12] In this Ripon was supported by Florence Nightingale, who also backed his efforts to obtain a Bengal land tenancy bill (eventually the Bengal Tenancy Act 1885) that would improve the situation of the peasants.[13] In 1882 he repealed the controversial Vernacular Press Act of 1878 passed by Lytton.[14] He also promoted the Indian Famine Codes
.

He was also instrumental in supporting

Maharaja of Darbhanga which had a total bag of 1683, including 4 tigers, 47 buffaloes, 280 pigs and 467 deer. (The remainder was ″small game″.) There was some criticism at ″... such wholesale destruction, particularly as it happens to be the breeding season.″[15]

He is still revered in

Parsis for their community members, was named after him.[16]

Political career, 1884–1908

Lord Ripon also became a supporter of

First Lord of the Admiralty, and in the government of 1892 to 1895 he was Secretary of State for the Colonies.[17] When the Liberals again returned to power in 1905 under Sir Henry Campbell-Bannerman, he took office, aged 78, as Lord Privy Seal and Leader of the House of Lords. In 1908, he declined to remain as Lords leader when H. H. Asquith became Prime Minister in April, and he resigned as Lord Privy Seal in October.[17]

As noted by Neil Smith, Ripon's liberalism had roots in the mid-nineteenth century, but his political views "shifted with the times". According to Smith, "he was greatly interested in labour questions, deeply sympathetic to labour aspirations and believed the state might interfere with wages and that the state had a duty to deal with unemployment".[18]

Other appointments

Robinson caricatured in Vanity Fair, 1869

Lord Ripon was President of the

West Riding of Yorkshire, JP for the Liberty of Ripon, and served as Mayor of Ripon in 1895–1896.[20]

Lord Ripon was a

Catholicism in 1874.[1] His conversion to Catholicism was met by astonishment in the political world, and accusations of disloyalty.[21]

Following his conversion he was generous in supporting Catholic educational and charitable works. He was president of the

Society of St Vincent de Paul from 1899 until his death and a great supporter of St. Joseph's Catholic Missionary Society and St Wilfrid's Church
in Ripon.

Lord Ripon was Chancellor of the University of Leeds from its creation in 1904 until his death in 1909.[22]

Marriage and children

Lord Ripon married his cousin Henrietta Anne Theodosia Vyner, daughter of Henry Vyner and his wife Lady Mary Gertrude Robinson, daughter of

Thomas Robinson, 2nd Earl de Grey, on 8 April 1851. They had one son and one daughter:[23]

Death

Lady Ripon died in February 1907, aged 73. Lord Ripon survived her by two years and died of heart failure at Studley Royal Park[19] in July 1909, aged 81. He was buried at St Mary's, Studley Royal[19] and was succeeded in the marquessate and other titles by his only son, Frederick Oliver.[19] His estate was assessed for probate with a value of £127,292. 15s. 8d. (equivalent to £14.1 million in 2021[24]).[25]

References

  1. ^ a b c d e White, Geoffrey H., ed. (1949). The Complete Peerage, Volume XI. St Catherine's Press. p. 4.
  2. ^ Foster, Joseph (1888). Alumni Oxonienses, 1715–1886. Oxford University Press. p. 1213.
  3. ^ "No. 21338". The London Gazette. 13 July 1852. p. 1947.
  4. ^ a b Wolf, Lucien (1921). Life of the First Marquess of Ripon. London: John Murray. p. 47.
  5. ^ "No. 21434". The London Gazette. 26 April 1853. p. 1193.
  6. ^ "No. 21987". The London Gazette. 10 April 1857. p. 1297.
  7. ^ "No. 22731". The London Gazette. 1 May 1863. p. 2305.
  8. ^ "No. 23748". The London Gazette. 20 June 1871. p. 2847.
  9. ^ "No. 23565". The London Gazette. 14 December 1869. p. 7070.
  10. ^ Congress Presidents 1869–2002 (PDF), February 2002, archived from the original (PDF) on 28 May 2008, retrieved 10 May 2008
  11. ^ "No. 24843". The London Gazette. 11 May 1880. p. 2968.
  12. ^ Cotton, Henry (1904). New India or India in Transition. London: Kegan Paul. p. 4.
  13. ^ "Reforms Brought by Lord Ripon – Discussed!". History Discussion - Discuss Anything About History. 29 November 2014. Retrieved 5 December 2018.
  14. ^ "Sport". The Cornishman. No. 251. 3 May 1883. p. 6.
  15. ^ "Ripon Club".
  16. ^ required.)
  17. ^ http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/10241/1/10241_7035.PDF?UkUDh:CyT[bare URL PDF]
  18. ^ a b c d White, Geoffrey H., ed. (1949). The Complete Peerage, Volume XI. St Catherine's Press. p. 5.
  19. ^ Kelly's Handbook of the Titled, Landed and Official Classes 1909. Kelly's. p. 1386.
  20. .
  21. ^ University of Leeds, charter
  22. ^ Pine, L G, The New Extinct Peerage 1884-1971: Containing Extinct, Abeyant, Dormant and Suspended Peerages With Genealogies and Arms. London, UK, Heraldry Today, 1972.
  23. ^ UK Retail Price Index inflation figures are based on data from Clark, Gregory (2017). "The Annual RPI and Average Earnings for Britain, 1209 to Present (New Series)". MeasuringWorth. Retrieved 11 June 2022.
  24. ^ "Ripon, Marquess of". probatesearchservice.gov. UK Government. 1909. Retrieved 11 April 2020.

External links