The Late Lord Hardwicke
[Obituary published in the London "Times" 18 September 1873 page 12]

"The Conservative party has sustained a loss by the death of the Earl of Hardwicke, which event happened yesterday morning at Sydney-lodge, Southampton, where he had been long suffering from dropsy, erysipelas, and acute disease of the hip joint. The body will be removed to Wimpole for interment in the family vault.

"The Right Honourable Charles Philip Yorke [= Yorke Family Tree], Viscount Royston of Royston, and Baron Hardwicke of Hardwicke, in the county of Gloucester, and Admiral on the Reserved List, Lord Lieutenant and Custos Rotulorum of Cambridgeshire, was the eldest son of the late Vice-Admiral Sir Joseph Sydney Yorke, K.C.B.[= Yorke Family Tree] (who was drowned by the upsetting of a vessel in the Southampton Water in 1831), by his first wife, Elizabeth [= Yorke Family Tree], daughter of the late Mr James Rattray, of Atherstone.

Charles Philip Yorke, 4th Earl of Hardwicke (1799-1873)

"He was born at Sydney-lodge, near Southampton, on the 2d of April, 1799, and was educated at Harrow, and subsequently at the Royal Naval College, where he carried off the second medal. He entered the Royal Navy just at the close of the war, but was fortunate enough to see some active service, embarking in May, 1815, as a midshipman on board His Majesty's ship Prince, then flagship at Spithead. In the course of the same and the following year, according to O'Byrne, he successively joined the Sparrowhawk (18 [guns]) and the Leviathan (74) commanded in the Mediterranean by Captains F.W. Burgoyne and Thomas Briggs, and subsequently the Queen Charlotte (100), the flagship of Lord Exmouth, by whom he was entrusted with the command of a gunboat at the bombardment of Algiers.

"We next find him joining the Leander (60), bearing the flag of Sir David Milne, on the North American station, where he had command of the Jane, a small vessel employed in carrying despatches between Halifax and Bermuda. After acting a few months as Lieutenant of the Grasshopper (18), Mr Yorke was confirmed in that rank by commission, bearing date August, 1819; and in the following October joined the Phaeton, Captain W. Montague, in which frigate he served on the Halifax station until advanced another step in his profession in May, 1822. His next appointment was to the command, in 1823, of the Alacrity, on the Mediterranean station, where he was actively employed, both before and after obtaining his rank as Captain, in watching the movements of the Turco-Egyptian forces and in the suppression of piracy.

"From 1828 down to 1831, in command of the Alligator (28), on the same station, he took an active part in the naval operations connected with the struggle between Turkey and Greece. Lastly in 1844-45, he assumed for short periods the command of the Black Eagle steam yacht and the St Vincent (120), in the former of which he conveyed the late Emperor of Russia to England, and was presented on that occasion with a snuffbox bearing a portrait of His Imperial Majesty, studded with a profusion of brilliants, valued at 1000 guineas. Lord Hardwicke attained flag-rank in 1858, and accepted the retirement in 1870.

"His Lordship sat for a few years in the Lower House of Parliament, representing the borough of Reigate after his father's death in 1831, and the county of Cambridge in the first Reformed Parliament in 1832-34. He was, however, removed to the Upper House by the death of his uncle, the third Earl of Hardwicke, at the close of the last named year.

"On the accession of Sir Robert Peel and his party to office in September 1841, Lord Hardwicke was appointed one of the Lords in Waiting on Her Majesty; and while holding that post was appointed to attend on the late King of Prussia during his visit to England in the early part of the following year, and also on the late Emperor of Russia on a similar occasion in the summer of 1844. In 1847 he was nominated a member of the Council of the Duchy of Lancaster, and he held the office of Postmaster-General, together with a seat in the Cabinet, under Lord Derby's first and short-lived Administration in 1852. He did not, however, take office in any subsequent Administration of his party, but he held the post of Lord-Lieutenant of Cambridgeshire from the time of his accession to the Peerage in 1834.

"Lord Hardwicke married, in October 1833, the Honourable Susan Liddell [= Yorke Family Tree], sixth daughter of Thomas Henry, first Lord Ravensworth, by whom he had a family of three daughters and five sons. His title devolves upon his eldest son, Charles Philip, Viscount Royston, [= Yorke Family Tree] late Controller of Her Majesty's Household, who has sat as one of the representatives of Cambridgeshire in the House of Commons in the Conservative interest since 1865. His Lordship who now becomes fifth Earl, was born in April 1836, and was formally an officer in the 7th and 11th Hussars; he married, in 1863, Lady Sophie Georgiana Robertine Wellesley [= Yorke Family Tree] , second daughter of Earl Cowley, by whom he has a youthful family.

"The family of Yorke whom the late Earl represented were merchants and solicitors at Dover in the 17th and 18th centuries; and it is not a little singular that the grandfather and the great-grandfather of the nobleman now deceased both sat upon the Woolsack as Lord High Chancellors of Great Britain, the latter for several years in the reign of George II, and the former for a few days in January 1770, though his sudden death while the patent was in progress made void a peerage creation in his favour as Lord Morden."

© Copyright 1873 "The Times"

[Charles Philip Yorke † [= Yorke Family Tree], 4th Earl of Hardwicke is interred in the Hardwicke Family Vault beneath the Chicheley Chapel.]

Charles Philip Yorke - A Memoir

"Charles Philip Yorke - Fourth Earl Of Hardwicke - Vice-Admiral R.N. - A Memoir by his Daughter [Elizabeth] the Lady Biddulph of Ledbury - dedicated to his grandchildren" is now available online as a free ebook from Project Gutenberg at Fourth Earl of Hardwicke. If you have problems with this direct link go to http://www.gutenberg.net and run a title word search on Hardwicke. The book is something of an idealised and uncritical biography (perhaps the significant clue here is "daughter" and "grandchildren") but the book includes a fascinating and detailed account (mainly in his own words) of the 4th Earl's active life in the Royal Navy.

You can read the book online or download for study. A download into "Word" will take up about 650 KB and it opens in 214 pages.

The Late Lord Hardwicke
[Notice published in the London "Times" 25 September 1873 page 12]

"The mortal remains of the late Earl of Hardwicke were interred at Wimpole in the family vault on Wednesday last. The mourners were limited to the family of deceased - Viscount Royston (chief mourner), Countess of Hardwicke, Captain Hon. J.M. Yorke, Lady Elizabeth Adeane, Hon. Eliot C. Yorke, Lady Mary Craven, Hon. Alexander Grantham Yorke, Hon. Eliot T. Yorke, Hon. Grantham Yorke, Hon. and Rev. Robert Liddell, Colonel Hon. Augustus Liddell, Hon. Adolphus Liddell, Mr Robert Bevan, Mr. Augustus Craven, Mr. Reginald B Yorke - the medical attendants and members of the household. The Earl's coronet preceded the coffin to the tomb, which was beneath the chantry of Wimpole Church. The Bishop of Ely and the Rev. E Liddell read the Burial Service. The coffin was of polished oak decked with flowers. The following was the inscription on the breastplate:- "Admiral the Right Hon. Chas Philip Yorke, Earl of Hardwicke, Lord-Lieut. And Custos Rotulorum of the county of Cambridge, P.C., D.C.L., F.R.S., born 2d April 1799, died 17th September, 1873, at Sydney-lodge, Hants, in his 75th year." There was a large number of persons in the churchyard. The choir sang a hymn in the church and another in the churchyard at the close."

© Copyright 1873 "The Times".
See Hardwick Family Vault.

Uncle Hardwicke
[Excerpts from "Wimpole As I Knew It" by Alexander Campbell Yorke]

".... A few reminiscences of the fourth Lord Hardwicke may be of interest. Among ourselves he was known as ‘Old Blowhard’, a nickname that came, I believe, from the Navy, and was disclosed to us boys by my father.

It exactly suited him. He was a domineering, masterful old man; with, at times, a very rough tongue. A martinet of the old school on his own quarterdeck - that describes him. He was a terror to us his nephews. We respected him, but we feared him; and it was only when age softened him that I in any way can say I loved him. Looking back, and trying to understand him, I think I should say that he was a man of a large heart, but, where his interests were concerned, of a narrow mind: a man accustomed to rule his ship, and determined to carry that discipline into private life.

To us his nephews he was particularly stern, with a sternness that he did not display towards most others of his kith and kin. Perhaps it was that he feared, as we lived alongside him and thereby had a certain range over his property, that we should presume on our relationship, and must be kept down. At any rate, the rectory - and I include my father, his own brother - was kept as much at arm’s length as the lodge where lived his steward.

As Captain Yorke, in 1833, he had been returned as Member for Cambridgeshire. In this election he struck his prevalent note as ‘Post Captain’. From his old ship he obtained the use of the Captain’s gig and crew. The gig was mounted on a trolly, the crew manned it, and with oars raised to the salute, they were hauled through the town; Captain Yorke, in full rig, cocked hat and all, sitting in the stern sheets.

My father used to tell me of this, and in 1898 I met John Hoppett, who had been Porter at Trinity gate, and he told me that as a boy he had been sat on a wall to see this procession.

His pet aversion was the wearing of footpaths in the grass alongside the roads in the [Wimpole Hall] park. Rows of stumps, sometimes six deep, were driven in by the roadside for the unwary to break their toes against. I have stood by the old man on his porch as he roared, simply roared, a volley of mariner’s oaths at a foot passenger beside the road below the drive. No one, but the Captain of the ship, or his men on duty, was to tread his quarter deck.

The big, big D [Damn!] was the fashion not only of the ‘Queen’s Navee’ in his days of service but of ordinary conversation. The Duke of Wellington and Lord Melbourne used the expletive freely even in talking to Her Majesty herself. I say this in order that the following may not be judged too severely. It relates to the building of the new stables in 1850.

In 1885 I was at Bodalla in New South Wales. The gardener was a chirpy, cheery, chatty old man, named Bowman. One day he accosted me:

"Are you any relation of Lord ‘Ardwicke: Ah! ‘E wor a mighty proud gen’lem’n, ‘e wor. When I wor a boy, I used to be at work buildin’ them stables: and the old Lord, ‘e used to come down ev’ry morning’ arter breakfast. And oh Lor! ‘E used to damn our eyes proper, ‘e did. Ah! ‘E wor a mighty proud gen’lem’n!’

These little characteristics do not picture the ‘old lord’ in a very estimable light. But they are part of him. Yet, none could have sat alone with the old man in 1872 as I did, when failing health was upon him, and the great catastrophe to his house impending, - when he was racked with the pain of arthritis, and estranged from his eldest son, without finding that under his rough exterior there was a heart as soft as butter....."

[Taken from an Essay written in 1914 by Alexander Campbell Yorke 1851-1925, Rector of Fowlmere, 5th and yougest son of Henry Reginald Yorke 1802-1871, Rector of Wimpole and brother of the 4th Earl of Hardwicke; the author was then a man of 62 and remembering his childhood at Wimpole Rectory. The full text can be read at "Wimpole As I Knew It".]