John George Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham, GCB, PC (12 April 1792 – 28 July 1840), also known as "Radical Jack" and commonly referred to in Canadian history texts as Lord Durham, was a British Whig statesman, colonial administrator, Governor General and high commissioner of British North America.[2]
A leading reformer, Lord Durham played a major role in the passage of the Reform Bill of 1832. He later served as ambassador to Russia. He was a founding member and chairman of the New Zealand Company that played a key role in the colonisation of New Zealand.
George Woodcock wrote Lord Durham was "proud, wayward, immensely rich, with romantic good looks and an explosive temper", one of those "natural rebels who turn their rebellious energies to constructive purposes. Both at home and abroad he became a powerful exponent of the early nineteenth-century liberal spirit."[3]
In 1821, Lambton earned the epithet "Jog Along Jack" after he was asked what he considered an adequate income for an English gentleman and replying that "a man might jog along comfortably enough on £40,000 a year".[5]
In 1825 Lambton took the chairmanship of the New Zealand Company, a venture that made the first attempt to colonise New Zealand,[7] with his interest being philanthropic.[8][9] The venture failed at colonisation.[6]
Political career
Lambton was first elected to Parliament for County Durham in the general election of 1812, a seat he held until 1828, when he was raised to the peerage as Baron Durham, of the City of Durham and of Lambton Castle in the County Palatine of Durham.[10] In Parliament he supported liberal causes, from the defence of Queen Caroline to the removal of political disabilities on Dissenters and Roman Catholics. When his father-in-law Lord Grey became prime minister in 1830, he was sworn into the Privy Council and appointed Lord Privy Seal.[11] Along with Lord Russell he was a leading promoter of reform. He helped draft the famous Reform Bill of 1832. It reformed the electoral system by abolishing tiny districts, gave representation to cities, gave the vote to small landowners, tenant farmers, and shopkeepers and to householders who paid a yearly rental of £10 or more and some lodgers.[6]
Lord Durham is lauded by some Canadian historians for his recommendation to introduce responsible government, which the British government did not accept. It took ten more years before a responsible parliament was established in the colonies. Colonial legislatures had existed in the two Canadas since 1791 but were toothless compared to appointed colonial administrators.[19] Lord Durham is less well regarded for recommending the union of Upper and Lower Canada, which resulted in the creation of the united Province of Canada.
As early as 1844, Lord Durham's intended policy of assimilation faced setbacks, as Louis-Hippolyte Lafontaine's party in the House forced de facto reestablishment of French as a language of Parliament. Once responsible government was achieved (1848), French Canadians in Canada East succeeded by voting as a bloc in ensuring that they were powerfully represented in any cabinet, especially as the politics of Canada West was highly factional. The resulting deadlock between Canada East and West led to a movement for federal rather than unitary government, which resulted in the creation of confederation, a federal state known as the Dominion of Canada, incorporating New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, and dividing the United Canadas into two provinces, Ontario (Canada West) and Quebec (Canada East), in 1867.[19]
Family
Master Lambton: Lambton's eldest son (until his death, aged 13) Charles William, painted by Thomas Lawrence and later known as The Red Boy.
Lord Durham was twice married. He fell in love with Harriet Cholmondeley, the illegitimate daughter of the Earl of Cholmondeley, but then aged under 21 and refused the required permission by his guardians to marry her, they married at Gretna Green on 1 January 1812, then in an Anglican ceremony at her father's estate of Malpas, Cheshire, on 28 January that year. They had three daughters, who all predeceased him:
Lady Frances Charlotte (16 October 1812 – 18 December 1835), married the Hon. John Ponsonby (later 5th Earl of Bessborough), but died a few months later of consumption.
The Hon. Georgiana Sarah Elizabeth (2 March 1814 – 3 January 1833)
The Hon. Harriet Caroline (30 May 1815 – 12 June 1832)
After Harriet's death in July 1815, he married secondly Lady Louisa Grey, daughter of Charles Grey, 2nd Earl Grey, on 9 December 1816 at Lord Grey's estate, Howick, Northumberland. She was an amateur artist.[20] They had two sons and three daughters:
The Hon. Charles William (16 January 1818 – 24 September 1831) – see The Red Boy
Lord Durham died at Cowes on the Isle of Wight in July 1840, aged 48, and was buried at St Mary and St Cuthbert, Chester-le-Street. He was succeeded by his eldest and only surviving son, George. The Countess of Durham only survived her husband by a year and died aged 44 on 26 November 1841 at Genoa from a serious cold.[21]
In literature
In one of her occasional political forays, Letitia Elizabeth Landon in her poetical illustration to Sir Thomas Lawrence's portrait, 'The Right Honourable Lord Durham. Now on an Embassy at the Court of Russia' in Fisher's Drawing Room Scrap Book, 1833', expresses her hopes that Lord Durham be able to persuade the Russians to return to Poland its lost freedom and sovereignty.[22]
Wikisource has original text related to this article:
^"Canadian Encyclopedia". Canadian Encyclopedia. Historica Foundation, Toronto. 2011. Archived from the original on 29 November 2011. Retrieved 31 January 2011.
^George Woodcock, "'Radical Jack': John George Lambton, First Earl of Durham" History Today 9.1 (1959): 3-12.
^S. T. Bindoff, E. F. Malcolm Smith and C. K. Webster, British Diplomatic Representatives 1789–1852 (Camden 3rd Series, 50, 1934).
^"Unknown title". The Quebec Almanack and British American Royal Kalendar For The Year 1815. Quebec: J. Neilso, No. 3 Mountain Street. 1815.
^"Preparation for the departure of Lord Durham". The Royal Gazette. City of Hamilton, Pembroke Parish, Bermuda. 1 May 1835. Page 2, Column 3. -Great expedition is making at Sheerness, in fitting out the Hastings 74, the late flag-ship of Vice-Admiral Sir William Gall Gage, the late Commander-in-Chief on the Tagus, that vessel having been ordered to convy the Earl and Countess of Durham, family and suite to Quebec. The Hastings, commanded by Capt. Lock, is expected to be ready for sea in five weeks. Standard Considerable activity is apparent in the River: the following ships and vessels are preparing for sea, viz. Hastings, 78, Andromache, 28, Volage, 28, Modeste, 18, Charybdis, 3, Pincher schooner, Cruizer, 16, with the steam frigate Medea, and Dee, and steam-vessels Meteor, Tartarus, and Megara.-Portsmouth, March 3. The Gannet, 16, Com. Whish, recently from the West Indies, has been paid off.
^Chester William New, Lord Durham. A Biography of John George Lambton, First Earl of Durham (1929) p 375.
^ abWill Kaufman, Heidi Slettedahl Macpherson, ed. Britain and the Americas: Culture, Politics, and History, Pages 819–820. ACB-CLIO, 2005. ISBN978-1-85109-431-8
New, Chester. "Lord Durham and the British Background of His Report" Canadian Historical Review 20.2 (1939): 119–135. online
New, Chester. Lord Durham's Mission to Canada: A Biography of John George Lambton, First Earl of Durham Clarendon Press, 1929) online.
Ouellet, Fernand (2000). "Lambton, John George, first Earl of Durham". Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online. University of Toronto, Université Laval.
Reid, Stuart J. Life and Letters of the First Earl of Durham: 1792–1840 (2 vol London: Longmans, Green and Company. 1906). vol 1 online; also vol 2 online
Wallace, W. Stewart (1948). "John George Lambton, first Earl of Durham (1792–1840)". The Encyclopedia of Canada. II. Toronto: University Associates of Canada: 411.
Woodcock, George. "'Radical Jack': John George Lambton, First Earl of Durham" History Today 9.1 (1959): 3–12.
Viau, Roger (1963). Lord Durham (in French). Montréal: Éditions HMH limitée. pp. 181 p.
Desrosiers, Léo-Paul (1937). L'Accalmie : Lord Durham au Canada (in French). Montréal: Le Devoir. pp. 148 p.
Fernand Ouellet « Lambton, John George, 1er comte de Durham [archive] », dans le Dictionnaire biographique du Canada en ligne, University of Toronto et Université Laval, 2000
Ajzenstat, Janet (1988). La pensée politique de lord Durham (in French). Montréal: Université McGill-Queen. pp. 137 p. ISBN0773506373.
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