Charles Yorke, 4th Earl of Hardwicke

The Right Honourable The Earl of Hardwicke PC
Postmaster General
In office 1 March 1852 – 17 December 1852
Monarch	Victoria
Prime Minister	The Earl of Derby
Preceded by	The Marquess of Clanricarde
Succeeded by	The Viscount Canning
Lord Privy Seal
In office 26 February 1858 – 11 June 1859
Monarch	Victoria
Prime Minister	The Earl of Derby
Preceded by	The Marquess of Clanricarde
Succeeded by	The Duke of Argyll
Personal details
Born	2 April 1799 (1799-04-02) Sydney Lodge, near Southampton, Hampshire
Died	17 September 1873 (1873-09-18)
Nationality	British
Political party	Conservative
Spouse(s)	Hon. Susan Liddell (c. 1810-1886)

Admiral Charles Philip Yorke, 4th Earl of Hardwicke PC (2 April 1799 – 17 September 1873), was a British naval commander and Conservative politician.

Background

Born at Sydney Lodge, near Southampton, Hardwicke was the eldest son of Admiral Sir Joseph Sydney Yorke, second son of Charles Yorke, Lord Chancellor, by his second wife, Agneta Johnson. He was a nephew of Philip Yorke, 3rd Earl of Hardwicke. He was educated at Harrow and at the Royal Naval College, where he was awarded the second medal.

Naval career

Hardwicke entered the Royal Navy in May 1815 as midshipman on HMS Prince, the flagship at Spithead. Later, he served in the Mediterranean, on Lord Exmouth, by whom he was entrusted with the command of a gunboat at the bombardment of Algiers. He later joined HMS Leander (60) under the flag of Sir David Milne, on the North American station, where he was given the command of the Jane, a small vessel carrying dispatches between Halifax and Bermuda. He was then appointed acting Lieutenant of HMS Grasshopper (18) and after a few months commissioned in the rank of Lieutenant in August 1819. The next October, he joined the frigate HMS Phaeton on the Halifax station, until appointed to the command of Nicholas I, to England. He attained flag rank in 1838. In 1849 while commanding HMS Vengeance he participated in the repression of the republican Rebellion of Genoa in support of the forces of the Kingdom of Sardinia. The Vengeance also fired on the Hospital of Pammatone, causing 107 civilian casualties.^[1] For these actions he was decorated by the Sardinian King Victor Emmanuel II with two medals he was authorized to accept by Queen Victoria only in 1855.^{[citation needed]} In 1858 he retired from the active list with the rank of rear-admiral, becoming vice-admiral in the same year, and admiral in 1863 and retired from the Royal Navy in 1870.

Political career

Hardwicke represented Reigate in the House of Commons between 1831 and 1832 and Cambridgeshire between 1832 and 1834. In 1834, on the death of his uncle, he became the fourth Earl of Hardwicke, and inherited the substantial Wimpole estate in Cambridgeshire. He was a member of Lord Derby's cabinet in 1852 as Postmaster General and as Lord Privy Seal between 1858 and 1859. In 1852 he was sworn of the Privy Council.^[2]

Family

Lord Hardwicke married the Honourable Susan Liddell, sixth daughter of Thomas Liddell, 1st Baron Ravensworth, in August 1833. They had five sons and three daughters. He died in September 1873, aged 74, and was succeeded in the earldom by his eldest son, Charles. The Countess of Hardwicke died in November 1886.^[3]

He also supposedly fathered an illegitimate child by one Charlotte Pratt, a serving girl at his Wimpole Hall home. Charlotte got married in 1849, and the following was noted in the marriage register:

The year before this marriage, 18-year-old servant girl Charlotte gave birth to a son, James Pratt, who was baptised on the 2 April 1848. The father was understood to have been her employer, the 4th Earl of Hardwicke. "Charlotte... was a Pratt; and she was a picture. The handsomest woman that I ever remember to have seen. In harvest time to see her swinging along the road with a bundle of corn balanced on her head, both arms akimbo, was a study in colour, figure and poise". - A.C.Yorke^[4]

References

1. ^ [1]
2. ^ The London Gazette, 27 February 1852
3. ^ thepeerage.com Admiral Charles Philip Yorke, 4th Earl of Hardwicke
4. ^ Wimpole, Cambridgeshire Marriage Records

• The Times 18 September 1873.
• Charles Philip Yorke, Fourth Earl of Hardwicke, Vice-Admiral R.N. — a Memoir by Lady Biddulph of Ledbury. Source:- http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/7192

External links

•  "Yorke, Charles Philip (1799-1873)". Dictionary of National Biography. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 1885–1900. 

Attribution

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed (1911). Encyclopædia Britannica (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. 

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by Charles Yorke
• http://www.marina.difesa.it/storia/movm/parte02/movm204b.asp

Parliament of the United Kingdom
Preceded by Sir Joseph Sydney Yorke Joseph Yorke	Member of Parliament for Reigate 1831–1832 With: Joseph Yorke	Succeeded by Viscount Eastnor
Preceded by Henry John Adeane Richard Greaves Townley	Member of Parliament for Cambridgeshire 1832–1834 With: Richard Greaves Townley John Walbanke Childers	Succeeded by Richard Greaves Townley Eliot Thomas Yorke Richard Jefferson Eaton
Honorary titles
Preceded by The Earl of Hardwicke	Lord Lieutenant of Cambridgeshire 1835–1873	Succeeded by Charles Watson Townley
Political offices
Preceded by The Marquess of Clanricarde	Postmaster General 1852	Succeeded by The Viscount Canning
Preceded by The Marquess of Clanricarde	Lord Privy Seal 1858–1859	Succeeded by The Duke of Argyll
Peerage of Great Britain
Preceded by Philip Yorke	Earl of Hardwicke 1834–1873	Succeeded by Charles Philip Yorke

Persondata
Name	Hardwicke, Charles Philip Yorke, 4th Earl of
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	2 April 1799
Place of birth	Sydney Lodge, near Southampton, Hampshire
Date of death	17 September 1873
Place of death