Churchill's Grandmama

by Margaret E. Forster

  Edith insisted that the Londonderrys had no part in this mystery, but of course the rumours persisted and there is no doubt that the visit to Russia was an emotional one. If this gossip were true, then this would have been Frances Anne’s last meeting with Alexander. As for Frances and Harry, whatever they knew about this romantic story has never been mentioned, and so the denials of both Frances Anne and her biographer Edith Londonderry stand as the final word on the subject.

  Notes

  1. Durham Advertiser, 1828.

  2. Letters of Lord Londonderry, 1831-2, cited by Edith Londonderry, pp.173-4.

  Chapter Six

  A MARRIAGE HAS BEEN ARRANGED

  * * *

  By 1837 Frances was 15 years old and sufficiently mature to be taking an interest in what was going on around her. Her life was divided between Wynyard, the family home and estate, and Londonderry House in Park Lane, the social and political focus of her parents’ lives, a place which her mother had made the glittering centre of London society. It was a significant year nationally as Victoria came to the throne; her coronation was celebrated in splendour at Londonderry House. After a military review in Hyde Park, in which Charles’s regiment, the 10th Hussars, played a prominent part, the Londonderrys hosted a dinner for 150 guests.

  One of the guests was the young Benjamin Disraeli, a friend of Charles’s eldest son Frederick Castlereagh, and later to become such a devoted correspondent to Frances’ mother. Frances Anne promoted his political career when it was just beginning, and from this time the relationship between Disraeli and the family, particularly with Frances Anne, grew and deepened into a lifelong friendship. Disraeli wrote to his sister, vividly bringing out the spectacle and excitement of the occasion, describing it as ‘the most magnificent, most recherché conceivable’, and saying he felt privileged to sit down at the table with the other guests, surrounded by exquisite sculpture. The setting, in the newly built and refurbished Londonderry House, was magnificent: Londonderry’s regimental band was playing, this time on the huge double staircase, the background enhanced by orange trees and cape jessamines; their dashing cavalry uniforms evoked a spectacular scene.

  Among this magnificent company would have been Frances, the eldest daughter of a substantial family. This was the world to which Frances was becoming accustomed, one in which she acquired the social confidence and poise that characterised her as an adult, not only in the fashionable situations over which she was to preside so successfully but with regard to her responsibilities and interests. These were precious and important years for Frances as she entered into womanhood. She was remarkably well equipped for life. At Wynyard were all the pleasures and pastimes of the Park, such as walking, riding, hunting; then the classically styled house furnished in excellent taste with portraits, several by Sir Thomas Lawrence, furniture which the Marquess had collected on his various travels, and gracious windows with their uninterrupted views of the surrounding countryside. Wynyard was also the social centre for the neighbourhood, the country house towards which the county families would gravitate, giving the Londonderrys an experience different from that of London.

  There was also Seaham Hall, the centrepiece of the estate bought from the Milbankes with the sale of land for the development of the railway. It was situated on the headland above the harbour, looking out over the North Sea, or German Ocean as it was sometimes called, and was Frances Anne’s favourite home, comfortable in its size and simplicity. Here were the beginnings of a seaport, complete with piers and a lighthouse, around which the sea birds circled with their loud, piercing cries. The place had its own, quite different appeal.

  Disaster struck suddenly and unexpectedly. In 1841, when the Londonderrys were travelling extensively in Europe, word was brought that Wynyard Hall had burnt down. A flue connected with the conservatory had overheated and two thirds of the mansion was consumed by the subsequent fire. Staff and neighbours loyally fought the flames but their cause proved hopeless. The total damage was estimated at £150,000. The portrait of the lost heir, John Wharton Tempest, perished, together with other precious portraits and much of the fine furniture. Abroad in Italy, the Londonderrys were shattered but eventually summoned their resilience, supported by their neighbours and friends. It was characteristic of Charles that during these dark days he should dedicate his written account of his travels to his beloved Frances Anne, to whom he owed ‘more than I can repay’, the partner of his joys and sorrows.

  The house was rebuilt with speed, fortunately with the talents of, among others, John Dobson, the gifted architect from Newcastle, and Ignatius Bonomi, from Durham City with an equivalent reputation; as a result, the final structure was even more splendid than the first. It was typical, too, of the Londonderrys that they should enter at this moment upon one of the most significant periods of their lives.

  It was in 1842 at Wynyard, still only half restored, that the coming-of-age of the son and heir Harry was celebrated. In spite of the shortage of accommodation for guests, the event was honoured by royalty in the person of the Duke of Cambridge. Nor did the Londonderry estate workers and tenantry fail to acknowledge this landmark: the survival of the heir into adulthood meant continuity of employment, security of tenure for all, and the occasion was celebrated with the traditional roasted ox.

  On this important occasion, Frances, aged 20, the eldest daughter of the 3rd Marquess of Londonderry, had her own special guest. There is no official record of where and how Frances Anne Emily Vane-Tempest-Stewart met John Winston Spencer-Churchill, Marquess of Blandford, heir to the 6th Duke of Marlborough. No doubt they frequented the same social circle and had mutual friends. There is evidence in the Londonderry Papers in Durham Records Office that Harry, Viscount Seaham, Frances’ brother, was a friend of John Winston’s, probably from their Oxford undergraduate days. Also, in the private apartments at Blenheim Palace hangs a picture of two gentlemen painted by John Wootton and dated 1735. One is Charles Spencer, Earl of Sunderland and later 3rd Duke of Marlborough, and the other is Lord Henry Vane, Frances’ ancestor. This would indicate an acquaintance between the two families over at least one hundred years, one point of common interest being the hunter and hounds which make up the rest of the picture.

  John Winston Spencer-Churchill, the 7th Marquess of Blandford, was descended from a long line of proud ancestors, ambitious high-achieving men in some cases, yet he was a fiercely individual politician with a reputation for stability and, unlike most of his ancestors, conscientious industry. Contrary to family tradition, he did not go to Christ Church, Oxford, that stronghold of broad-mindedness, but to Oriel, the centre of Tractarianism at the height of the Oxford Movement during the days of John Henry Newman. There he would absorb an awareness of the need for reform in the Church of England, something which preoccupied him in Parliament. His new father-in-law, the 3rd Marquess of Londonderry, with his Scottish and Northern Irish background, was also known for his high principles and honourable dealing, qualities which reappeared in his daughter and became one of the factors which made theirs such a strong marriage.

  This marriage had none of the insensitivity of that in 1895 of the 9th Duke and the American Consuelo Vanderbilt, in that neither party was coerced, either by a socially ambitious mother or the desperate need for money. Jackson’s Oxford Journal, precursor of the Oxford Times, gives a comprehensive report of the wedding, which was held at St George’s, the fashionable ‘society’ church in Hanover Square, at 11 a.m. on 12 July 1843. As might be expected, for a marriage between two of the most notable families in the country, it was a grand affair. The ceremony was conducted by the Bishop of London; the bridesmaids were Lady Alexandrina Vane (Frances’ sister), Lady Louisa Churchill (John’s sister), Lady Adelaide Vane (Frances’ younger sister), and the Hon. Miss Liddell (eldest daughter of the Dean of Christ Church, Oxford and sister to Lewis Carroll’s ‘Alice’); the groom was supported by his brother, Lord Alan Spencer-Churchill. As well as receiving presents from Queen Victoria, Frances and John enjoyed t
he support of guests including His Majesty the King of Hanover and, in addition to the Londonderry and Marlborough families were the Duke of Wellington, the Marquess of Salisbury and Lady Blanche Cecil, the Marquess and Marchioness of Ely with Lady Anna Loftus, and many other aristocrats. There was a splendid wedding breakfast at Londonderry House, attended by Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Kent, Her Royal Highness the Duchess of Gloucester, Their Royal Highnesses the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and the Duke and Duchess of Northumberland. The list was long and impressive.

  The characters of the two main participants meant that the main purpose of the ceremony would not be forgotten. John Winston, because of his education at Oxford at a time when the Church of England was in the process of reform, and Frances, because of the attitudes and practices with which she had grown up, were both aware of the importance and solemnity of the vows they were taking. There is no doubt that each of them made a serious and wholehearted commitment to their marriage which was to strengthen and support them through the troubled times which lay ahead.

  In an age when it was acknowledged that not all children would survive infancy, John Winston and Frances, the new Marchioness of Blandford, had a large family: five boys and six girls, but three male children died in infancy. George, the eldest surviving male, was set to inherit the dukedom, and Randolph, the younger survivor, was born five years later. They grew up with their six sisters in Hensington House, which their father was given as Marquess of Blandford until he became Duke of Marlborough. It was a gracious, sensible, unpretentious family house just outside Blenheim Park, which allowed daily access to the Park, a spacious and attractive playground. Designed by Sir William Chambers and built by John Hooper, a local mason, the house occupied land acquired by exchange from Merton College. It can be clearly seen on the 1920 map of Woodstock, occupying the site of the present Cadogan Park.

  Discovered between the pages of a book in the library at Blenheim Palace were a few sheets of paper with dates of birth, probably destined for the family Bible. They are headed BLANDFORD and prefaced by a quotation from the Old Testament book of Job (Chapter 1, verse 21): ‘The Lord gave, and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the Lord.’ After this there follows:

  George Charles

  Born in London May 13th 1844

  Frederick John

  Born in London Feb. 2nd 1846

  Died at Alverstoke, Hants. Aug. 12th 1850

  Cornelia Henrietta Maria

  Born in London Sept. 17th 1847

  Randolph Henry

  Born in London Feb. 13th 1849

  Rosamund Jane Frances

  Born in London Nov. 9th 1851

  Fanny Octavia Louisa

  Born in London Jan. 29th 1853

  Anne Emily

  Born in London Nov. 14th 1854

  Charles Ashley

  Born in London Nov. 25th 1856

  Died at Blenheim March 11th 1858

  Augustus Robert

  Born in London July 4th 1858

  Died in London May 12th 1859

  Georgiana Elizabeth

  Born in London May 14th 1860

  To these was added later the last child: Sarah Isabella Augusta, born in 1865. It is sad to note the early deaths of three of the boys, but this was common in Victorian times, and it endorses the wisdom of the parents’ policy of having a larger family than we would have today.

  Three years younger than Queen Victoria, Frances was very much in the same mould. They were already linked socially, as indicated by the wedding guest list, and were following similar life patterns: the large family, the social conscience, the strong sense of duty. It was in 1853 that Queen Victoria led the way with the use of chloroform in childbirth; Frances would not be slow to follow this example.

  Upon his graduation John Winston had become MP for Woodstock and immediately identified his priorities as being those of church reform. Everything he did as an MP was supported by Frances; they frequently discussed politics and possible reforms together. The Bill which actually bears his name, of Blandford, was passed in order to strengthen the Established Church through the fairer distribution of parish finance by the creation of smaller parishes out of larger ones, particularly in large cities. Later, in 1850, he vehemently opposed the introduction of a Radical bill which would have removed Christian teaching from schools. Both he and Frances were shocked by the revelation of the over-generous income of senior churchmen: the Archbishop of Canterbury’s average salary was £22,907 per annum and the Bishop of Durham’s £26,786. John Winston’s proposal that the management of church lands should be placed in the hands of the laity was defeated in the Lords, but as a result of his efforts the properties of the Church are now administered by its Commissioners and the church hierarchy lives on fixed stipends.

  John Winston was strong in his convictions and energetic in his approach, and supported by a wife who was as intelligent and informed as himself. He observed in 1856 that over the past 30 years, £191,000 had been paid to the Dean and Chapter of Durham alone, simply for fines on the renewal of leases, none of which had been for the benefit of the Church. This was the world of novelist Anthony Trollope’s Barchester Towers, of the Mrs Proudies and underpaid starveling curates, that he was seeking to reform. He was opposed to any form of Sunday trading, and Lord Palmerston came in for his fierce criticism when he tried to celebrate the end of the Crimean War without a national day of thanksgiving.

  Here was a member of a premier dukedom who would become a national political figure of some importance. Peregrine Churchill and Julian Mitchell, writing for a TV series in the 1970s, called him ‘serious and puritanical’. He was encouraged in his political career by his mother-in-law, Frances Anne. Frances’ mother, the 3rd Marchioness of Londonderry, was the leading political hostess of the period and a close friend of Disraeli, whose political career she had promoted from his early years. John Winston’s own political career foreshadowed those of his son Randolph and his grandson Winston.

  It would seem from the number of Spencer-Churchill babies born in the years following the marriage that Frances might have been fully occupied; however, other events are recorded for this period. The Londonderry family events in Durham continued, of course, and this played a substantial part in the lives of the Marlboroughs in Oxfordshire.

  From 1843 onwards, the collieries which Frances’ mother had inherited showed considerable prosperity, grossing in 1844 an annual profit of £33,400 and in 1854, the year Charles, Marquess of Londonderry, died, a working profit of over £60,500. By this time women and girls were forbidden to work underground and the employment of boys was restricted to those over 12 years of age. Victorian working-class women, however, were expected to work, family or no.

  In Durham, various amenities were provided for the miners by the humanitarian Londonderrys: free medical treatment at the local infirmary and practically free education for children in the schools built and maintained by Frances Anne, who also defrayed the cost of books and masters’ salaries. A miners’ hall was built locally for meetings and recreation, and a needlework guild introduced for the free distribution of warm clothing for miners, their wives, children and elderly people, which was still in operation when the mines were nationalised after the Second World War in 1945. In return, she expected loyalty and usually obedience. Edith Londonderry relates an amusing story about a page-boy who was kept on duty outside the door of Frances Anne’s room and summoned from time to time by a handbell to carry out messages. One day, irritated by his repeated absences, she sent him to her husband with a note saying ‘Flog this fellow for me; he has been quite unendurable.’ The page read the note and asked a rather large footman to deliver it for him, with the result that it came back from the Marquess after he had added ‘I’m afraid!’ Frances’ father and mother continued to hold huge parties at both Wynyard and Londonderry House, to which many people aspired to be invited, and from her position Frances Anne promoted the interests of the young, promising politicians who gathered aro
und her, including Benjamin Disraeli.

  In 1846 two more Londonderry weddings occupied the family: Harry, Viscount Seaham, married a Welsh heiress, Miss Mary Cornelia Edwards, only daughter of Sir John Edwards, Bt, of Garth and Machynlleth. A year later he entered the House of Commons as MP for North Durham, which he continued to represent until his father’s death. In 1846, also, Frances’ sister Alexandrina, the late Russian Tsar Alexander’s goddaughter, married an Irish peer, Lord Portarlington. The wedding took place at Wynyard, to which a huge party, including the influential Sir Robert Peel, was invited. It was also a house-warming, for this was the first time the reconstructed mansion was thrown open. Disraeli, jealous at what he saw as conspicuous favouritism of his rival Peel, wrote to Frances Anne, expressing admiration at the heroic resurrection of Wynyard and pleading that he should always be allowed to remain her special friend.

  Nor was Frances’ maternal grandmother, the Countess of Antrim, forgotten. In 1850, at the height of the potato famine in Ireland, Garron Tower was built in her memory in an attempt to diminish the unemployment crisis. Standing in a spectacular and dominating position on land inherited from the Countess, at Garron Point just outside Belfast, it overlooked a great overhanging cliff with a 300-feet drop to the sea below. Built in the style of a fifteenth-century castle, it forms two sides of a quadrangle, with a high octagonal tower. The grand hall and staircase are decorated with the old arms and flags, including the colours of the 18th and 25th Light Dragoons and the 10th Hussars, all regiments which Charles Stewart, 3rd Marquess of Londonderry, had commanded. On the first landing of the main staircase was a huge stained-glass window showing Frances Anne’s illustrious ancestor Sir Piers Tempest receiving the accolade of knighthood from Henry V on the battlefield of Agincourt in 1415. There was a great house-warming in the summer of 1850, when the Lord Lieutenant of Ireland, the Earl of Clarendon, was the guest of honour.