John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham

John Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham
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The Earl of Durham

John George Lambton, 1st Earl of Durham (also known as Radical Jack, and commonly referred to in history texts simply as Lord Durham) GCB PC (12 April 1792 – 28 July 1840 Cowes), was a British Whig statesman, colonial administrator, Governor General and high commissioner of British North America. He was born in London to William Henry Lambton and Anne Barbara Frances Villiers.

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1 Political career
2 Family
3 Notes
4 References
- 4.1 In English
- 4.2 In French
5 See also

Political career

As Lord Privy Seal in the administration of his father-in-law, Earl Grey, he helped draft the reform bill of 1832. He was sent to the Canadas^[1] in 1838 to investigate the circumstances surrounding the Lower Canada Rebellion of Louis-Joseph Papineau and the Upper Canada Rebellion of 1837, and his detailed and famous Report on the Affairs of British North America (1839) recommended a modified form of responsible government and a legislative union of Upper Canada, Lower Canada and the Maritime Provinces.

He has been lauded in Canadian history for his recommendation to introduce responsible government.^{citation needed} This was implemented and by 1847 Canada was a functioning democracy, as it has been ever since.^{citation needed} He is less well considered for his idea of merging Upper and Lower Canada into one colony, since this was proposed with the express end of trying to encourage the extinction of the French language and culture through intermingling with the lesser English population.

In the end, though, his recommendations discouraged assimilation^{citation needed}. Once responsible government was achieved (1848), French Canadians in Canada East succeeded by voting as a bloc in ensuring that they were powerfully represented in any cabinet, especially as the politics of Canada West was highly factional. The resulting deadlock between Canada East and West led to a movement for federal rather than unitary government, which resulted in the creation of confederation, a federal state of Canada, incorporating New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, in 1867.

Family

The 1st Earl's family and personal fortune was derived largely from mining on lands surrounding Lambton Castle, the ancestral family home in County Durham.

He was maternal grandson of the 4th Earl of Jersey and his wife, who was a mistress to the Prince of Wales, later George IV.

Lord Durham was married twice first on 1 January, 1812 to Lady Harriet Cholmondeley, daughter of the 1st Marquess of Cholmondeley by his sometime mistress Grace Dalrymple Elliott.^[2] ^[3] Lord Durham and Harriet had three daughters:

Frances Charlotte Lambton (16 October 1812 – 18 December 1835) married John Ponsonby, 5th Earl of Bessborough
Georgiana Sarah Elizabeth Lambton (2 March 1814 – 3 January, 1833)
Harriet Caroline Lambton (30 May 1815 – 12 June 1832)

His second marriage (1816) was to Lady Louisa Elizabeth Grey, eldest daughter of the Whig politician the 2nd Earl Grey, by whom he had 5 children. 1.Lady Emily Augusta Lambton+ d. 2 Nov 1886 2.Lady Alice Anne Caroline Lambton d. 15 Jan 19071 3.Lady Mary Louisa Lambton+ d. 9 Mar 18981 4.Hon. Charles William Lambton b. 16 Jan 1818, d. 24 Dec 18311 5.George Frederick D'Arcy Lambton, 2nd Earl of Durham+ b. 5 Sep 1828, d. 27 Nov 18791

One of his daughters married another Governor General of Canada, James Bruce, 8th Earl of Elgin and 12th Earl of Kincardine, who was later Viceroy of India; their son the 9th Earl of Elgin also became Viceroy of India, the only father and son to hold that office and position. ^[4]

Another descendant, the son of his great-granddaughter Lady Lilian Lambton, was Alec Douglas-Home. As 14th Earl of Home, he was the last British Prime Minister from the House of Lords before he renounced his peerages to become a member of the House of Commons.

Notes

^ It was during Durham's trip to the Canadas aboard the Hastings that he experienced one of the first recorded cases of synesthesia. The observations were made by a friend of Durham's, Dr. William Henry Farrow, who was a young doctor traveling to the Canadas on Durham's invitation. Chester New's Lord Durham
^ The Prince of Wales also claimed paternity. Shelley, Frances, and Richard Edgcumbe. The Diary of Frances Lady Shelley. New York: C. Scribner's, 1912, (pp.43-45) googlebooks
^ Grace Elliot lived for a time with Philippe Égalité, the Duc d'Orléans Dictionary of National Biography. Vol. XVII, London: Smith, Elder, & Co, 1885, (pp. 268-269) googlebooks
^ The only other pair of descendants were Gilbert Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, 1st Baron Minto and his grandson Gilbert Elliot-Murray-Kynynmound, the 4th Earl. Surprisingly, he too had first served as Canadian Governor General, as Lord Elgin.

References

In English

Ouellet, Fernand. "Lambton, John George, 1st Earl of Durham", in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online, University of Toronto, Université Laval, 2000
Ajzenstat, Janet (1988). The Political Thought of Lord Durham, Montreal: McGill-Queen's University, 137 p. ISBN 0773506373 (online excerpt)
New, Chester William (1929). Lord Durham. A Biography of John George Lambton, First Earl of Durham, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 612 p.
Wallace, W. Stewart. "John George Lambton, first Earl of Durham (1792-1840)", in The Encyclopedia of Canada, Vol. II, Toronto, University Associates of Canada, 1948, 411p., pp. 253-254. (online)
Shelley, Frances, and Richard Edgcumbe (1912). The Diary of Frances Lady Shelley. New York: C. Scribner's, 406 p.
Bradshaw, F. (1903). Self-Government in Canada, and how it was achieved : the story of Lord Durham's report, London: King, 414 p.
Lambton, John George, Charles Buller, Edward Gibbon Wakefield (1839). The Report and Despatches of the Earl of Durham, Her Majesty's High Commissioner and Governor-General of British North America, London: Ridgways, Piccadilly (online)
Mill, John Stuart. "Radical Party and Canada: Lord Durham and the Canadians", in London and Westminster Review, VI & XXVIII, 502-33, January 1838 (online)
Lambton, John George (1835). Speeches of the Earl of Durham on Reform of Parliament, London: James Ridgway and Sons, Piccadilly, 204 pages (online)
Reid, John (1835). Sketch of the Political Career of the Earl of Durham, Glasgow: John Reid & Co. 400 p. (online)

In French

Ouellet, Fernand. "Lambton, John George, 1er comte de Durham", in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online, University of Toronto, Université Laval, 2000
Viau, Roger (1963). Lord Durham, Montréal: Éditions HMH limitée, 181 p.
Desrosiers, Léo-Paul (1937). L'Accalmie : Lord Durham au Canada, Montréal: Le Devoir, 148 p.

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