Frederick William Robert Stewart, 4th Marquess of LondonderryKPPC (7 July 1805–25 November 1872), styled Viscount Castlereagh from 1822 to 1854, was a British nobleman and Tory politician. He was briefly Vice-Chamberlain of the Household under Sir Robert Peel between December 1834 and April 1835.
He was his father's only son from his father's first marriage. In 1812, while Frederick's father was serving in the army in the Peninsular War, Frederick's mother died. Frederick was seven. His father remarried seven years later in 1819 and Frederick's half-siblings were born.
He was the only child of his parents but had younger half-siblings:
Following the death of his mother and during his father's absence on military and diplomatic duties, Frederick was largely raised by his uncle and aunt, Lord and Lady Castlereagh. He went to Eton in 1814, where he stayed until 1820. After his father succeeded to the marquessate of Londonderry in 1822, Frederick Stewart became known by the courtesy titleViscount Castlereagh, which was to be his title for 32 years until 1854. He matriculated at Christ Church, Oxford in 1823.[5]
Portrait by James Godsell Middleton, 1856. Frederick Stewart as Marquess of Londonderry. The background on the left shows the view from Mount Stewart over the Strangford Lough on Scrabo Hill with its tower.
Personal life
In 1838, Count Gérard de Melcy, the husband of the Italian operatic singer Giulia Grisi, discovered a letter written to Giulia by Frederick Stewart, and the two men fought a duel on 16 June of that year. Lord Castlereagh was wounded in the wrist; the Count was uninjured. After the duel, Grisi left her husband and began an affair with Lord Castlereagh. Their son, George Frederick Ormsby (1838–1901), was born in November 1838 and brought up by his father.
By 1852, he "had fallen out with his father, the 3rd Marquess of Londonderry over their views on the land question [and] was obliged to retire because of these differences".[10]
He succeeded his father in 1854 as the 4th Marquess of Londonderry. He built Scrabo Tower as a monument to the memory of his father.[12] In 1857 he and his wife attended the ceremony of the laying of the foundation stone.[13]
In 1862 Londonderry was diagnosed as mentally ill. He was secluded in a mental institution at White Rock Pavilion in Hastings.[15][b] He died there on 25 November 1872, aged 67 and was buried in the Newtownards Priory. His wife, the dowager Marchioness of Londonderry died on 2 September 1884, aged 70, and was buried with him in the double grave in the priory.
As he had no legitimate children, he was succeeded in the marquessate by his half-brother, George Vane-Tempest, 2nd Earl Vane. This had the effect that the fortunes of the Stewart and the Vane side of the Londonderry family were reunited in a single hand.
Ancestry
Ancestors of Frederick Stewart, 4th Marquess of Londonderry
^This family tree is based on the genealogies of the marquesses of Londonderry.[3][4] Also see the list of siblings in the text.
^This was almost certainly White Rock Villa as the White Rock Pavilion, now called the White Rock Theatre, was not built until 1927.
Citations
^Cokayne 1893, p. 133, line 12: "[Frederick was] b. [born] 7 July 1805, in South street, Grosvenor sq.;"
^Cokayne 1893, p. 132, line: "He [his father] m. [married] firstly, 8 Aug. 1804, at St. Geo. Han. sq., Catherine, 4th da. [daughter] of John [Bligh], 3d Earl of Darnley [I. [Ireland]] ..."
^House of Commons 1878, p. 313: "Frederick Stewart, commonly called Lord Viscount Castlereagh / 8 July 1826 / Down County"
^Brian Walker, 'Landowners and Parliamentary Elections in County Down, 1801–1921' PP 307–8 in Lindsay Proudfoot, 'Down – History and Society', Geography Publications, 1997
^Gordon-Gorman 1899, p. 140: "Londondery, The late Elizabeth, fourth Marchioness of, daughter of the third Earl of Roden."
^Hyde 1979, p. 50: "At the same time her husband constructed the great tower on Scrabo Hill overlooking the town in his father's memory."
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