Foreword. This account of the 2nd Duke’s life is based essentially on a 603-page unpublished master’s thesis from a provincial English university. Australia’s Jan Irving was finally able to obtain a computer-disk copy which she kindly shared. I had it printed out, bound, and was able to plough through taking notes as my sole reading material on a long Arctic cruise with my wife shortly before the COVID pandemic. Its author, Clive Priestley, was faced with the horrendous prospect of poring over some 2,200 unarranged documents from the 2nd Duke’s estate, with only one year’s financing to do it. The result is a conglomeration of often unrelated details. A large part of my academic career was spent directing M.A. theses and Ph.D. dissertations. Never have I seen a worse thesis, but it was an almost impossible task and fortunately for us he did it. A striking element here is the ‘grim reaper.’ Beginning with the 2nd Duke’s father everyone succeeds to his title following the premature deaths of one or more relatives. His father owes his earldom to the death of his older brother. The future 2nd Duke becomes earl after the deaths of two older brothers, and later duke after the deaths of two cousins and a maternal uncle. The 2nd Duke’s son becomes 3rd Duke because of the deaths of two older brothers and an infant nephew. The 3rd Duke’s son is suddenly 4th Duke at age ten when his father takes the wrong medicine. This pattern seems to repeat itself throughout the unhappy family until there is not even a very distant cousin to succeed the 10th Duke, and the Newcastle dynasty becomes extinct.
Bryant Freeman, Ph.D. Yale
Breed Historian
Clumber Spaniel Club of America, Inc.
The Second Duke is the single person most responsible for the very existence today of the Clumber Spaniel. Without the breeding stock he fortuitously obtained while visiting France, this breed of Spaniels would have forever disappeared some quarter of a century later during the slaughter and chaos of the French Revolution. One of his many workers oversaw the actual breeding and whelping, but he alone had both the ways and means to perpetuate our breed. We owe him an immense debt of gratitude.
N.B. To appreciate the importance of the various titles, the following ‘pecking order’ could be of interest:
emperor/empress
king/queen
prince/princess
duke/duchess
marquis/marquise
earl or count/countess
viscount/viscountess
baron/baroness
Thus the title of duke denotes the highest echelon of aristocracy below royalty. (Remember the impression in Downton Abbey when a duke comes to visit.) There were 40 dukes in Great Britain at the time of the 2nd Duke of Newcastle but only 24 today. Two duchies prominent in Clumber Spaniel history now disappeared are Newcastle in 1988 and Portland in 1990.
1714 – 1720
The future 2nd Duke’s father, Henry Fiennes Clinton, 7th Earl of Lincoln (1684-1728) – having gained the title following the death of an older brother – was Lord of the Bedchamber (1714-1727) to King George I and more significantly from 1715 to 1720 Paymaster-General of the Armed Forces. This position was one of the most sought-after in the realm, handling huge sums of money and presenting great opportunities for graft. Furthermore in 1716 he suddenly inherits a fortune from a distant relative he reportedly had never even met, and which included the imposing Oatlands estate in Surrey. With this sudden new-found wealth, he is able to improve his status even further 16 May 1717 by marrying Lucy Pelham (c. 1698-1736), sister of two of the wealthiest and most powerful men in Great Britain. Thomas Pelham-Holles, First Duke of Newcastle-under-Lyne (1693-1768) was Secretary of State for 30 years and twice Prime Minister. His brother Henry Pelham (1694-1754) was also Prime Minister among numerous other titles. Thanks to these two powerful brothers-in-law the 7th Earl is further named Knight of the Garter (1721), Constable of the Tower of London (1723-1725), and Cofferer of the Royal Household (1725-1728).
Photo ops obviously did not yet exist, but the 7th Earl of Lincoln (on the right) was only too happy to immediately commission a portrait of himself sharing a drink alone with his new brother-in-law, the 1st Duke of Newcastle, one of the most powerful men in the kingdom.
1718 (15 Jan.) Birth of first son George.
1720 (16 Apr.) Birth in London of second son Henry (“Harry”), future 2nd Duke of Newcastle-under-Lyne.
1722 (23 Nov.) Birth of first daughter Ann.
1723 (8 Nov.) Birth of third son Thomas.
1724 Birth of second daughter Lucy.
1727 (17 March) Death of third son Thomas at age three.
1728 (7 Sept.) Death of father, aged 44. “Harry” is now eight. To pay off her husband’s personal debts of today’s equivalent of over six million US dollars, Lady Lucy Lincoln is obliged to sell their London mansion and its contents. Far more serious is the ‘debt’ from her husband’s former position as Paymaster- General. She is faced with accounting for today’s some US $96 million embezzled by her husband, as well as the care of four frail young children. Fortunately there were her two all- powerful brothers.
1729 (Feb.) George, invalid at age 11 and now 8ᵗʰ Earl of Lincoln, sent for his health to Avignon, France, accompanied by his private tutor.
(March) Process issued by Court of Exchequer against Lady Lincoln calling for “account of moneys received by Lord Lincoln.”
(Aug.) Lady Lincoln and three children leave England for France rejoining George in Aix-en-Provence.
1730 Mother and four children settle in Le Vigan, small village in France’s distant Cévennes Mountains, for childrens’ health – and far from government creditors.
(30 April) Death at age 12 of George, 8th Earl of Lincoln. Harry becomes 9th Earl of Lincoln (now nicknamed “Linky”). Never appreciated by his mother as elder brother George had been.
1730 – 1731 For his health Linky sent with his tutor first to thermal baths at Barèges and later to Barbotan-les-Thermes. His right arm was only half as large as his left arm, trouble lifting it to or above his head. [Note his right arm is never portrayed.]
1733 (June) From age 9 to 13 Linky had studied in Le Vigan with his private tutor but now happy to return to England for four years school at Eton. Frequently vacations at Uncle Newcastle’s Surrey estate, Claremont.
1734 (1 Jan.) Death of Ann, aged 11.
(May) After deaths of George and now Ann, Lady Lincoln and Lucy return to England after more than four years in Le Vigan. Mother and daughter quietly settle on her sister Margaret Pelham’s estate in Sussex, not far from her two brothers in Surrey.
1735 Linky shows great interest in hunting, which continues throughout his life. Special attachment to a Greyhound, “Princess.”
1736 (20 July) Death of Lady Lucy Lincoln at age 38, having lost her husband and three of her five children, with ‘debt’ to the Crown still hanging over her.
Linky inherits three estates; at age sixteen he has lost both parents and three of his four siblings. He and his only remaining sister Lucy are in effect adopted by their maternal uncle the 1st Duke of Newcastle who never had any children of his own and becomes their father figure.
1737 (Sept.) Following the example of Uncle Newcastle, Linky admitted as a nobleman to study at Clare College, Cambridge University, accompanied as always by his private tutor. Chafes at its evening curfew, carouses especially with fellow student Horace Walpole (1717-1797, famous letter-writer and art expert). Continues vacations hunting at Uncle Newcastle’s estate Claremont.
1 Sept. 1739 – late Nov. 1741 After two years and without earning a degree, “leaves Cambridge unscathed by discipline and without overcoming a willingness to gratify each succeeding impulse. Always shy of exerting himself more than necessary.” Traditional ‘Grand Tour’ of France and Italy of young English noblemen, with an Oxford professor as his personal guide and tutor. Twenty-seven months: Paris, Turin (11 months), Florence, Rome (4 months), Naples, Reggio, Venice (spring), Genoa, Antibes (29 July), Cévennes/Le Vigan (Aug.), Montpellier, Paris (3 months), returning to England. Under the influence of his tutor, “discovers his inclination for landscape gardening which never waned as long as he lived.”
Events during 1739-1741 ‘Grand Tour’:
1739 (Nov.) Henry Pelham, his other maternal uncle, loses in the same week his only two sons, aged 10 and 3. Typically Linky fails to write even a note of condolence, later claiming “excess of grief.” His two powerful extremely wealthy uncles are now without male heir except for him. Thus his even more privileged position.
1740 Joins Horace Walpole in Turin, Italy. Practices fencing, plus frequent hunting parties.
Uncles Newcastle and Pelham still laboring under burden of late brother-in-law’s ‘debt’ to Crown.
1741 In Florence falls in love with Lady Sophia Fermor (1721 -1745): “beautiful, intelligent” -but uncles Newcastle and Pelham object.
In Rome forced to pay off paternity suit concerning another damsel. In Reggio quarrels with Walpole who later falls very ill but Linky does not remain to care for him. (Walpole later makes fun of him in his 1743 Patapan or The Little White Dog.) (Late Nov.) After two years three months on ‘Grand Tour,’ returns to England.
1742 (Jan.) Rents house in London for “full-time partying and pursuit of opposite sex.” Called “handsomest man in England, joy of womankind, practiced roué; great capacity for wine, relentless bent for dalliance.” Forgets Lady Sophia Fermor.
Many highly indiscreet letters (amazingly still in existence!) from Horace Walpole, whose biographer describes “a passionate but ultimately unhappy love affair with the 9th Earl of Lincoln.” (Apr.) Lady Katherine Pelham’s latest miscarriage convinces his two maternal uncles Newcastle and Pelham they can never produce a male heir to continue family fortune. Obvious solution: arranged marriage between their departed sister Lucy’s only surviving son Lincoln, and Uncle Pelham’s eldest surviving daughter Catherine. Lincoln named Lord Lieutenant of Cambridgeshire (1742-1757), first of many lucrative positions requiring little or no work obtained for him by his mother’s two politically powerful brothers.
1743 (27 Aug.) Uncle Henry Pelham becomes Prime Minister until his death March 1754.
Lincoln named Lord of the Bedchamber to King George II and then to King George III until Nov. 1762. [George III’s first bout of mental illness began only in 1765, recurred summer 1788-Feb. 1789, permanent 1811 to his death 1820.]
1744 (16 Oct.) Just as his father had married a sister of Prime Ministers Pelham and Newcastle, Lincoln (aged 24) marries his 17-year-old first cousin Catherine Pelham (24 July 1727 – 27 July 1760), eldest daughter/niece of the same two Prime Ministers Pelham and Newcastle. “Beautiful, amiable and accomplished; outspoken with a mind of her own; a bright, lively spirit in a fragile shell.”
Greatly distances himself from his former rowdy, lustful drinking companions.
Still remaining: “Case relating to the Crown Debt” (i.e. money embezzled by Lincoln’s father].
Lincoln’s annual income before marriage averages today’s some US $1,500,000.
1744 – 1751 Married and thus “serious,” his two Prime Minister uncles hope in vain to find active political support from their nephew/son-in-law/heir. When in London occupies house in Downing .
Thanks to his two uncles, awarded: Master of the Jewel Office (1744-1745) and Cofferer of the Household (1747-1754). But especially advantageous are two sinecures with underlings of course doing the actual work: 1) Comptroller of London Customs (lifetime appointment beginning 1749 averaging annually over US $300,000 today); and 2) Auditor of the Exchequer (lifetime appointment beginning 1751 averaging annually over US $3 million today along with an imposing London mansion). Also Knight of the Garter (Sept. 1751).
1745 Rebuilding and enlarging Oatlands House and estate, Surrey, bequeathed 1716 to his father. Located 19 miles southwest of central London, overlooking river Thames, not far from the estates of his two uncles at Claremont and Esher. Lays out formal gardens with Chinese pheasants, pools with goldfish, groves with orange-trees, forest, and mile-long lake. Even more notably constructs famous “Shell Grotto” adorned with hundreds of polished shells and metals illuminated by huge chandeliers (11 years in the making, cost equals at least US $10 million today). Haydn, who gave a concert there, calls the house “a small castle” and describes the Grotto with “water made to flow in from various sides.”
(26 Nov.) Birth of son George (first of four sons, no daughters).
1746 Birth in Surrey of William Mansell, future head gamekeeper/kennel master at Clumber Park, for 30 years in charge of breeding purebred white Spaniels.
1748 (Oct.) Unsuccessfully requests from Uncle Newcastle appointment as British ambassador to France, where he spent part of his childhood speaking French – the only time in his life exhibiting any political aspiration but interested essentially in its social role.
1750 (5 Nov.) Birth of second son Henry.
1752 (1 July) Birth of third son Thomas (eventually 10th Earl of Lincoln and 3rd Duke of Newcastle, due to deaths of older brothers George and Henry, and Henry’s infant son).
(19 Aug.) Only six weeks later death of first son George, aged 6.
Buys land in Surrey “abounding in game,” where he can forget all in his “passion for shooting.” Numerous Mansells live nearby. Mention of Pointers, but not of Spaniels.
1753 (July) Official mansion as Auditor of the Exchequer becomes his London residence.
1754 (6 March) Death of maternal uncle/father-in-law Henry Pelham, Prime Minister.
Inherits estates in Sussex (sold in 1767 and 1772).
(16 March) Other maternal uncle Newcastle named Prime Minister.
Lincoln had long been torn by disputes between the two brothers, often “messenger-boy” when the two were not even on speaking terms. Nephew and nephew/son-in-law of two of the most important men in the realm, qualified by rank and family to play a leading role in government, Lincoln’s constant course remained one of apathy and inertia. Growing dissension between him and Uncle Newcastle based on his failure to support his uncle politically, as well as their prickly temperaments.
(July) One of Lincoln’s frequent trips for his health to fashionable spas such as Cheltenham, Bath, Harrogate, Scarborough, Tunbridge Wells.
Annual income equivalent to at least 6 million US dollars.
1755 (July) Birth of fourth and last-born son John, described as best of Lincoln’s four sons.
1756 (17 May) Outbreak of Seven Years’ War/French and Indian War.
Newcastle: “My Lord Lincoln was extremely ill-humored here yesterday, but indeed that is now so common that he is scarce ever otherwise.”
(11 Nov.) Newcastle dismissed as Prime Minister.
(17 Nov.) Even though their relationship is worse than ever Uncle Newcastle receives permission from the king for Lincoln’s right of succession to the title of Duke of Newcastle-under-Lyne.
1757 (29 June) Newcastle again named Prime Minister.
1758 Work on house and extensive grounds at Oatlands, begun by his father, now essentially completed. Chief delight: to wine and dine with friends there rather than in London where he passes little time.
1759 Lincoln named High Steward of Westminster, thanks as usual to Uncle Newcastle.
1760 (27 July) Sudden death “in three hours of convulsions” of his wife, “dearest Kate,” aged 33. Arranged marriage culminating in deep love, “found in her his truest happiness.” Married at 17, mother at 18; eight pregnancies in 16 years including four miscarriages, the last one causing her death. Leaves sons aged 9, 8, and 5. Prolonged morbid depression after her death. “My irretrievable, irreparable misfortune.” Never remarries.
(Sept.) To help overcome his grief, uncle Newcastle sends him to one of his estates in Nottinghamshire. Thus Lincoln, widower at age 40, sees Clumber Park for the first time.
Early 1760’s Mansell family members begin to work at Oatlands estate.
1761 – 1768 Long project with lavish spending to transform Clumber Park from “boggy waste to beautiful estate.” Clumber House entirely rebuilt from initial small hunting lodge.
1762 Half-hearted attempt to obtain military promotion for cousin Sir Henry Clinton (1730-1795).
(26 May) Uncle Newcastle ends second and final term as Prime Minister.
1763 (15 Feb.) End of Seven Years’ War/French and Indian War; “Britain gained, Spain remained, France drained,” but Britain’s national debt almost doubled.
Spends more and more time at Clumber.
Construction of Clumber Bridge, today only notable remaining landmark from his time.
Son Henry student at Eton until 1767.
(Oct.) Death at Oatlands of his last sibling Lucy, aged 39, unmarried. “A lonely, nervous, sickly woman, scatter-brained and indecisive.” Subject of family pity.
1764 Lincoln’s lawyers conclude that his father’s ‘debt’ (i.e. embezzlement) to the Crown is “not chargeable, remaining unclaimed and unsettled for near fifty years.” The charges which had long hung over his mother, uncles, and Lincoln appear now to finally be at an end, effectively ‘smothered’ by his remaining former Prime Minister uncle.
(Sept.) Probable date when Lincoln makes trip to France receiving breeding stock of Spaniels, gift from the 4th Duke de Noailles. Lincoln now aged 44, widower for 4 years, with three surviving sons 14, 12, and 9.
William Mansell is 18. Since Lincoln’s principal residence was still Oatlands, dogs very probably first kenneled there rather than at far more distant Clumber, a 19-hour trip north from London. [Timeframe of Visit to France-coming soon.]
(12 Nov.) Acquires legal ownership of Clumber Park: Uncle Newcastle signs over his interest in the estate, and Lincoln pays cousin Lord Vane today’s equivalent of some US $2 million for his remaining interest.
1765 (Aug.) Lincoln and Uncle Newcastle definitively part company. Basic clash of temperaments plus nephew’s personal attachment to uncle’s chief political rival William Pitt the Elder (1708-1778).
Late 1760’s on Spends more and more time at Clumber Park.
1767 (1 July) John Mansell (father of John and William Mansell) notes “more birds than ever.” Thus Mansell family certainly present on Lincoln’s estates.
1768 (17 Nov.) Death at age 75 of Uncle Newcastle, “suspicious, irritable, volatile, and ambitious to the last.” Lincoln forbidden access as his maternal uncle/former father figure/great benefactor lay dying.
Lincoln officially becomes Second Duke of Newcastle-under-Lyne. Previously his life had been very much in the shadow of his two famous, overbearing uncles – and he was content with it that way. Now automatically member of House of Lords until his death, exhibits no desire whatever to work with his departed uncles’ political allies. Described as “timid, self-effacing, reticent,” spoke only twice and then very briefly. “Happiest planting trees and digging lakes at Oatlands and Clumber.” Inherits from his uncle estates in Nottinghamshire, Yorkshire, and Middlesex.
(Dec.) Named Privy Councilor, Lord Lieutenant of Nottinghamshire, and Steward of Sherwood Forest.
1769 (19 Oct.) William Mansell marries 19-year-old Sarah Moss; six sons, four daughters.
1770’s Chiefly agricultural pursuits at his two main estates Oatlands and Clumber.
Duke noted for allowing fellow nobles to hunt on his properties, and leniency concerning poachers.
1770 (July) Requests army commission from King for his unruly son Thomas now out of Eton to serve under command of cousin Sir Henry Clinton.
Obvious importance of Mansells in Duke’s life: notes from local bishop and from close friend concerning John Mansell’s health (elder brother of William Mansell, died 1785).
1771 (Autumn) Son Henry involved with a dancer in Pisa, Italy, contracts syphilis. (Dec.) Henry loses equivalent of today’s some 3.5 million US dollars to card-sharks in Florence, scandal much publicized in press since now heir to the title. (Contrast this with William Mansell’s annual salary of some US $10,000!)
1772 (May) Acquires seats in Parliament for sons Henry and later Thomas – who just barely avoids a duel with another young hotheaded aristocrat.
1773 Letter from Adrien-Louis de Bonnières, duc de Guînes (1735 – 1807, French ambassador to Great Britain, protégé of Queen Marie-Antoinette and Duke de Noailles) requesting Duke’s support in his trial concerning ‘misappropriation’ of French government funds; found not guilty by narrow margin.
(16 Dec.) Boston Tea Party.
1774 (Sept. – Oct.) Philadelphia: First Continental Congress. 1775 (Feb.) Typically does not consider it worth the trouble to recall son Thomas, partying at Bath, for all-important conciliatory motion in Parliament involving taxation question for the American colonies.
(19 Apr.) Concord, Mass.: Evolution to Revolution in the American colonies. Duke’s annual income equivalent to about US $5 million today. (21 May) Son Henry (age 24) marries Lady Frances Seymour-Conway (1751 – 1820).
Jan. 1775 – Sept. 1776 Gradual transfer to Clumber Park of Spaniels from Duke’s principal residence at Oatlands in Surrey south of London. Records indicate at least 20 Spaniels at Clumber by Sept. 1776 – nineteen under the charge of William Mansell, plus one in Dec. 1775 under the charge of his elder brother John. Thus any claim linking the arrival of Spaniels not until the year preceding the 1789 beginning of the French Revolution 14 years later is ridiculous.
1775 – 1782 Much correspondence between Duke and cousin General Sir Henry Clinton, Commander-in-Chief 1778-1782 of all British forces fighting in America; wants Duke to intercede with the king to have him relieved of command “in that unhappy country.” Son Thomas in America serving directly under his
cousin General Clinton who can hopefully keep him in line.
1776 (6 Apr.) Birth of son Henry’s daughter Catherine (died 17 May 1804). (4 July) US Declaration of Independence. Letter from close friend rejoices in Duke’s “present life of wine and women.”
1777 (23 Dec.) Birth of Henry’s only son, heir to title.
June 1778 – Sept. 1783 France ally of Americans, at war with Britain.
1778 Acquires seat in Parliament for son John even though still a student on ‘Grand Tour’ in France and Italy. Increasing burden of debt amounting to equivalent today of some US $19 million. Close friend observes Duke no longer “in his old style, full of jokes & festivity, & making everybody happy around him.”
(18 Oct.) Son Henry, heir to title and in heavy debt, dies in France at age 27 (consumption or syphilis).
1779 (23 Sept.) Henry’s infant son heir to title dies. Thus Duke’s unruly third son Thomas becomes heir to title following deaths of two elder brothers and infant nephew.
1780 Thomas very much in love with Lady Anna Maria Stanhope but Duke greatly disapproves (“family of notoriously bad character”). Threatens to not pay off son’s debts.
1781 Former partying companion laments ‘professional lady-friend’ Peggy Lee is no longer around for her weekly visit to “cheer up” the Duke.
(19 Oct.) British surrender to French and Americans at Yorktown.
(10 Nov.) Youngest son John, unmarried, dies aged 26 in Lisbon, Portugal, where he had gone for his health.
Duke’s sons George (1745-1752) died aged 6, Henry (1750-1778) died aged 27, and John (1755-1781) died aged 26. Thus it is his least favorite third son, “hell-raiser” Thomas (1752-1795) who will inherit the titles.
1782 (Feb.) Cousin General Sir Henry Clinton resigns from army; widely blamed for defeat in America.
(2 May) Thomas secretly marries Lady Anna Maria Stanhope (1760 – 1834). Duke grudgingly resigns himself temporarily to only remaining son’s marriage, hoping for an heir.
1783 (March) Daughter (Anna Maria, died 1807) born to Thomas and Anna Maria. Duke finally has hope for a future male heir, so reconciles with Thomas.
(3 Sept.) End of American Revolutionary War; Britain recognizes United States Independence.
(Dec.) Request from King George III to support William Pitt the Younger, so Duke for once exerts himself politically and orders the six MPs under his control to support Pitt.
1784 Twelve Spaniels listed at Clumber. Painting of “Spaniel” by George Stubbs (English, 1724-1806) commissioned by Duke’s relative, Charles Anderson-Pelham, Earl of Yarborough.
1785 (31 Jan.) Son Henry born to Thomas and Anna Maria, future 4th Duke. Following birth of the necessary male heir, Duke has Thomas rewarded with military promotion but no longer civil to daughter-in-law.
(July) Death of John Mansell, elder brother of William Mansell.
1788 Very much in debt, Duke sells Oatlands – expense of maintaining two huge estates too great. Thus only at age 68 does Clumber Park become his official residence.
Clumber House is described by a guest as “The ornament of this charming county. There is indeed every convenience or luxury of life in the greatest perfection. Everything, even the minutest, has been attended to, and no expense whatever spared to make it complete.”
To celebrate his new official residence Duke commissions a huge almost 7-foot x 5-foot oil on canvas painting by Francis Wheatley (1747- 1801), Return from Shooting depicting the Duke, a Colonel Litchfield, head gamekeeper William
Mansell and two others, with Clumber Bridge and Clumber House in background – with four unmistakable Clumber Spaniels. Its importance as irrefutable evidence at this time of our breed cannot be mistaken. Only coincidentally is it just one year prior to the 1789 first outbreak of the French Revolution. Thus Clumber Park is the Duke’s principal residence for at most only the six final years of his life. Now aged 68 and widower for 28 years, he has lost three sons and a grandson, as well as both brothers, both sisters, both uncles. Only remaining heirs: third son Thomas, future 3rd Duke (with whom relations highly strained) and Thomas’ three-year-old son Henry, future 4th Duke. William Mansell is now 42.
1789 (30 Apr.) George Washington inaugurated 1st US president, New York City.
(14 July) Storming of the Bastille, Paris. Duke serenely surveys from afar tumultuous events in France. “Very fine shooting at Clumber” (diary of a friend).
1790 Duke severely criticizes Thomas and wife concerning upbringing of their now five-year-old son Henry.
Correspondence regarding Clumber Park’s hunting boundaries.
1791 Opinion of many: “Duke puts to no use nor is he interested in his considerable political influence in Parliament.”
1792 Duke: “I love shooting and to show plenty of game to my friends upon my own estates.”
1793 (21 Jan.) King Louis XVI guillotined; (1 Feb.) Revolutionary France declares war on Britain; “Reign of Terror” begins; (22 Aug.) death of 4th Duke de Noailles at 80, his wife and most of family later guillotined.
1794 (Early Feb.) Duke gives ball in honor of grandson Henry’s ninth birthday. Two weeks later Duke has paralytic stroke depriving him of speech. “He had been in better health and spirits for some weeks previous to his death than for many months before.” (Sat. evening 22 Feb.) Born in London, Duke dies in his Palace Yard residence, Westminster, London; aged 73 years, 10 months. A lifelong hypochondriac, he nevertheless lived approximately twice as long as any of his family. “Still in some financial difficulty due to vast amounts developing Clumber.” In his will Duke bypasses almost completely his only surviving son Thomas in favor of grandson Henry. Thomas’ “income so small hardly enough to keep him out of debt, not a farthing left his wife.” Addendum to will leaves annuities to a few longtime servants, including “my faithful servant, William Mansell, my gamekeeper in Nottinghamshire, the yearly sum of £50 (today some US $16,600) and I do, out of regard to him for his faithful services and in consideration of his large family, give and bequeath the sum of £100 (today some US $33,200) for a mourning ring to wear in remembrance of me.” Windfall inheritance for Mansell – annual salary of £30 increased to annual retirement of £50.
(8 March) Duke buried alongside his wife in the Newcastle family vault used until 1820, under the chancel of St. Swithin’s Anglican church (building dating to 11th century), in the Lincolnshire hamlet of Baumber. Church closed in 2020; remaining congregation of some ten unable to make costly roof repairs.
Probable retirement of William Mansell at age 48 (not young in 18th century), thanks to generous annual pension in Duke’s will, leaving care of the Spaniels to a younger generation of Mansells.
1795 (18 May) Accidental death at age 42 (takes wrong medicine) of Thomas, 3rd Duke of Newcastle, only 15 months after father’s death.
1806 (13 July) Death of William Mansell, age 60, at nearby Haughton.
1807 (April) Unsigned article, “William Mansell, Gamekeeper to the Duke of Newcastle,” in The Sporting Magazine. Single most valuable written source concerning Clumber Spaniel history.
1938 Demolition of Clumber House, unoccupied since 1928.
1988 (25 Dec.) Dukedom of Newcastle-under-Lyne becomes extinct with death of 10th Duke who leaves no heirs.
Summary. By both birth and marriage possessed of potentially great political influence, the 2nd Duke had little or no interest in the constant machinations of parliamentary and court life. His two greatest life-long passions were landscape gardening and hunting. His biographer Clive Priestley concludes: “By nature, essentially an unobtrusive country gentleman. From childhood to old age, he did exactly as he pleased, indulging one after the other his emotions, passions and sentiments. Happiest at the head of a dinner-table or out shooting with those friends who suited his tastes.”
Bibliography. The principal source concerning the 2nd Duke is the 603-page two-volume unpublished 1958 Master’s thesis by Clive Priestley (died 24 Jan. 2012), The Life and Career of Henry Fiennes Pelham-Clinton, 1720-1794, now in the University of Nottingham Library. The Walpole-Lincoln correspondence is published in the Yale edition of Horace Walpole’s Correspondence, vol. 30.
There are in addition many books published on the Newcastle family, principally on the 1st Duke and on his brother who each served as Prime Minister as well as on the politically active 5th Duke, with even one on his scandalous wife. The 400-page self-justifying diary of the 4th Duke, “the most hated man in England,” too conservative even for the Crown, has also been published. Especially of note is John Fletcher’s Ornament of Sherwood Forest: From Ducal Estate to Public Park (2005).
Yet to be thoroughly investigated are Newcastle papers held by the National Archives, the British Library, Oxford University’s Bodleian Library, the National Library of Scotland, and the Southampton University Library. It should not be forgotten that many Newcastle family archives were forever lost in Clumber House’s two principal fires of 1879 and 1912.