William Beauclerk, 9th Duke of St Albans

William Aubrey de Vere Beauclerk, 9th Duke of St Albans (24 March 1801 – 27 May 1849) was an English aristocrat and cricketer.

His Grace The Duke of St Albans
Preceded by	William Beauclerk
Succeeded by	William Amelius Aubrey de Vere Beauclerk
Personal details
Born	William Aubrey de Vere Beauclerk 24 March 1801
Died	27 May 1849 (aged 48)
Nationality	British
Spouse(s)	Harriet Mellon Coutts ​ ​ (m. 1827; died 1837)​ Elizabeth Catherine Gubbins ​ ​ (m. 1839; his death 1849)​
Children	3, including William
Parents	William Beauclerk, 8th Duke of St Albans Maria Janetta Nelthorpe
Occupation	Cricket player

Early life

William Aubrey de Vere Beauclerk was born on 24 March 1801. He was the son of William Beauclerk, 8th Duke of St Albans, and his second wife, the former Maria Janetta Nelthorpe.[1]

His paternal grandparents were Lady Catharine Ponsonby and Aubrey Beauclerk, 5th Duke of St Albans, a Whig Member of Parliament for Thetford from 1761 to 1768 and for Aldborough from 1768 to 1774. His mother was the only daughter and heiress of John Nelthorpe of Little Grimsby Hall (the former High Sheriff of Lincolnshire) and Mary Cracroft (second daughter, by his first wife, of Robert Cracroft of Hackthorn Hall).[1]

Cricket

He played a first-class cricket match for Hampshire in 1817. He was a member of the Marylebone Cricket Club.[1]

Memorial to William Aubrey De Vere, 9th Duke of St Albans, in Highgate Cemetery

Personal life

On 16 June 1827, he married Harriet (née Mellon) Coutts (1777–1837), who was 23 years his elder, in London. Harriet, the widow of banker Thomas Coutts and daughter of Lt. Matthew Mellon, was an actress who eventually starred at Drury Lane.[2] She died on 6 August 1837 and left her fortune to her step-granddaughter, who changed her surname to Angela Burdett-Coutts.[3]

On 29 May 1839, he married, secondly, to Elizabeth Catherine Gubbins (c. 1818–1893) in Harby, Leicestershire.[4] Elizabeth was the youngest daughter of Maj.-Gen. Joseph Gubbins of Kilfrush, by his first wife Charlotte Bathoe (a daughter of James Bathoe). They had three children:[5]

• William Amelius Aubrey de Vere Beauclerk, 10th Duke of St Albans (1840–1898), who married Sybil Mary Grey, a daughter of Lt.-Gen. The Hon. Sir Charles Grey and granddaughter of Charles, 2nd Earl Grey. After her death in 1871, he married Grace Bernal-Osborne, a daughter of Secretary of the Admiralty Ralph Bernal Osborne and granddaughter of Ralph Bernal.[6]
• Lady Diana de Vere Beauclerk (1842–1905), who married Sir John Walter Huddleston.[7] Appeared in W. P. Frith's famous painting of the marriage of the Prince of Wales in 1863 and also in his 1881 work A Private View at the Royal Academy.[8]
• Lady Charlotte Beauclerk (b. 1849)[1]

He died on 27 May 1849.[1] There is a memorial to him in Highgate Cemetery (west side) with an inscription which reads: To the memory of William Aubrey De Vere, 9th Duke of St Albans, for many years proprietor of Holly Lodge, Highgate, Born March 24th 1801, Died May 26th 1849.

After his death, his widow remarried, as his second wife, Lucius Cary, 10th Viscount of Falkland (formerly the Governor of Nova Scotia and Bombay, on 10 November 1859. They were married until his death in 1884. The Viscountess Falkland died on 2 December 1893 at St Leonards-on-Sea.[1]

Descendants

Through his son, he was a grandfather of Osborne Beauclerk, 12th Duke of St Albans, Lady Moyra Beauclerk (wife of Lord Richard Cavendish, grandson of William Cavendish, 7th Duke of Devonshire),[9] Lady Katherine Beauclerk (wife of Henry Somerset, a grandson of Henry Somerset, 8th Duke of Beaufort and secondly, Maj.-Gen. Sir William Lambton, son of George Lambton, 2nd Earl of Durham), Lady Alexandra Beauclerk, and Lord William Beauclerk, who both died unmarried.[1]

References

1. "St Albans, Duke of (E, 1683/4)". cracroftspeerage.co.uk. Heraldic Media Limited. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
2. Haydon, Benjamin Robert (1853). Life of Benjamin Robert Haydon: Historical Painter, from His Autobiography and Journals. Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans. p. 353. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
3. Healey, Edna (January 2012). "Coutts, Angela Georgina Burdett-, suo jure Baroness Burdett-Coutts (1814–1906)". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online edn (subscription required). Oxford University Press. Retrieved 21 April 2014.
4. Manuscripts, British Museum Department of (1889). Catalogue of Additions to the Manuscripts in the British Museum in the Years ... Order of the Trustees. p. 429. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
5. Dodd, Charles R. (1846). THE PEERAGE, BARONETAGE, AND KNIGHTAGE, OF GREAT BRITAIN AND IRELAND, INCLUDING ALL THE TITLED CLASSES. p. 444. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
6. "Bestwood Emmanuel Churchyard". Southwell & Nottingham Church History Project.
7. Fjågesund, Peter; Symes, Ruth A. (2003). The Northern Utopia: British Perceptions of Norway in the Nineteenth Century. Rodopi. p. 353. ISBN 9789042008465. Retrieved 25 October 2017.
8. Walford, Edward (1859). Hardwicke's Titles of courtesy: containing those members of titled families whose names do not fall within the scope of the peerage, baronetage, and knightage. p. 16. Retrieved 5 May 2020.
9. Walker, Dave. "Costume Ball 4: Ladies only". Royal Borough of Kensington and Chelsea.

External links

• William Aubrey de Vere Beauclerk, 9th Duke of St Albans (1801-1849) at the National Portrait Gallery, London