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I
do not know that in the whole range of houses connected with the peerage
there is to be found a family whose rise to wealth and high titles has
been more truly the result of accident than that of the Phippses, Earls of
Mulgrave and Marquises of Normanby. A reference to the genealogical
portion of Burke's Peerage will explain my
meaning.
Three centuries ago the
Phippses were plain, untitled gentlemen, or possibly only yeomen, in
Lincolnshire. One of their number-a Mr. William
Phipps, the first whose name appears in the annals of the country, or even
of his county appears to have raised a regiment of horse soldiers for the
service of King Charles during the Civil Wars. But this loyal act was not
at till likely to have helped him in a pecuniary sense; for, with very
rare exceptions, Charles II seems to have had a very short memory of good
deeds done to his father when in difficulties. Mr. William Phipps,
however, had a grandson, Constantine, who chose the profession of the law,
and who, going over to Ireland at a fortunate juncture, rose to become the
occupant of the woolsack in the 'sister island,'
and to receive the honor of knighthood. He held the seals till 1714, when
he resigned, and, coming back to London, settled down in his chambers in
the Temple, resolved to spend his declining years in leisure and
retirement.
Like the noble house of
Lansdowne, whose history I have traced in these pages*,
the house of Phipps included in its pedigree a man of practical genius,
whose name and career I find thus mentioned in the Mechanic's Magazine,
for a cousin of Sir Constantine was William Phipps, the inventor of the
diving-bell: 'The first diving-bell of which we read was nothing but a
very large kettle, suspended by ropes, with the mouth downwards, and
planks to sit on, fixed in the middle of its concavity. Two Greeks at
Toledo, in 158$, made an experiment with it before the Emperor Charles V.
They descended in it, with a lighted candle, to a considerable depth. In
1683, William Phipps, the son of a blacksmith, formed a project for
unloading a rich Spanish ship sunk on the coast of Hispaniola. Charles II
gave him a vessel with everything necessary for his undertaking; but,
being unsuccessful, he returned in great poverty. He then endeavored to
procure another vessel; but, failing, lie got a subscription, to which the
Duke of Albemarle contributed. In 1687 Phipps set sail in a ship of two
hundred tons, having previously engaged to divide his profits according to
the twenty shares of which the subscription consisted. At first all his
labors proved fruitless; but at last, when he seemed almost to despair, he
was fortunate enough to bring up so Much treasure that he returned to
England with the valve of £200,000. Of this sum he got about £20,000, and
the Duke of Albemarle £90,000. Phipps was knighted by the king, and since
that time dicing-bells have been constantly employed.'
No doubt, when he died,
this Sir William Phipps left the results of his invention to his cousin
Constantine, who appears to have named after him his only son William, in
whom the hopes of the family were centered. This Mr. William Phipps
married the Lady Catherine Annesley, only daughter of the Earl of
Anglesey, whose countess was a natural daughter of James II. As the
husband of this latter lady, the Earl of Anglesey, died conveniently
young, her ladyship took for her second husband John Sheffield, Duke of
Buckingham and Normanby, by whom she had an only son, who died in his
minority, and bequeathed to his mother the reversion of his large
Yorkshire estates.
It was of course a very
natural thing for the mother, having inherited a fine estate from the only
son of her second marriage, to leave it to the only grandson of her first
marriage; and so it came about that Constantine Phipps, the son of Mr.
William Phipps and the Lady Catherine Annesley, when he found himself the
heir to this noble property, was enabled to claim and to obtain an Irish
peerage. The title which he chose was that of Lord Alulgrave, of New Ross,
in the county of Wexford; the same that had been one of the lesser titles
of the Duke of Buckingham. Edmund Sheffield, third Lord Sheffield, of
Butterwick, was created Earl of Mulgrave in 1626, and at his death, in
1646, was succeeded by his grandson Edmund as second earl. He was the
father of the above-mentioned John Sheffield, who was elevated to the
Marquisate of Normanby in 1694, and in 1703 advanced to the dignity of
Duke of Buckingham. His grace was well-known in his day as a poet, but of
moderate pretensions. He died in 1720, and was succeeded by his son
Edmund, on whose death in his minority, in 1735,
the dukedom and other honors became extinct. It is remarkable that, like
the lands in Berkshire, the ducal title of Buckingham is ' skittish, and
ever apt to cast its owners.' As often as it has been granted, it has
become extinct after one or two generations.
Constantine John, the
second Lord Mulgrave of the new creation, was a captain in the royal navy,
in which capacity he made a voyage for the purpose of endeavoring to find
the northwest passage. An account of this expedition he gave to the world
on his return to England. In Mr. Pitt's administration he was one of the
paymasters of the forces, and a commissioner of the East India Board, and
held many other important offices. He was
added to the
roll of the
English Peerage in 1790, with the title of Baron Mulgrave, of Mulgrave, in
Yorkshire, which became extinct on his death without male issue two years
later. The Irish barony, however, devolved upon his brother, Henry Phipps,
who in 1794 had a new patent granted him, conferring upon him the title of
Baron Mulgrave of Mulgrave. In 1812 he was raised to the dignity of
Viscount Normanby and Earl of Mulgrave. His lordship, having been educated
to the army, obtained early a commission in the Foot Guards, and rose by
regular stages to the rank of a general. He distinguished himself by his
services at the taking of Toulon in 1794, and he
was for some time colonel of the 31st Regiment of Foot,
and Governor of Scarborough.
His son, Constantine Henry, the father of the
present head of the family, was a distinguished statesman, politician, and
diplomatist. He held many important official situations in the government
of the country, including those of Governor-General of Jamaica, Lord Privy
Seal, Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, Secretary of
State for the Colonies, and Secretary for the Home Department. From 1846
till 1852, he was accredited representative of Great Britain at the Court
of the Tuileries, and from 1851 to 1858 he was Her Majesty's envoy to the
Court of Tuscany. He was also, inter alia, a successful novelist.
Besides being made a Knight Grand Cross of the Order of the Bath and a
Knight of the Garter, his political services were recognised by Lord
Melbourne, who conferred upon him at the coronation of Her Majesty, in
1838, the Marquisate of Normanby. His lordship died in 1863, and was
succeeded in all his honours by his only son, George Augustus Constantine,
the present marquis, who has held several colonial posts, including the
Governor ship of Victoria. of the Privy Purse to Her Majesty; and various
members of the Phipps family, ever since the clays of Lord Melbourne, and
the accession of Her Majesty, have held lucrative posts about the Court
and the person of Queen Victoria.
His uncle, the late Hon. Sir Charles Phips, was for
many years private secretary and keeper of the Privy Purse to Her Majesty;
and various members of the Phipps family, ever since the days of Lord
Melbourne, and the accession of Her Majesty, have held lucrative posts
about the Court and the person of Queen Victoria.
Chapters From the Family Chests, 1887
Chapters From the Family Chest |
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