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The Most HonourableThe Marquess of LondonderryKP
The Marquess of Londonderry
Lord-Lieutenant of County Durham
In office 1880–1884
Monarch	Victoria
Preceded by	The Earl of Durham
Succeeded by	The Earl of Durham
Personal details
Born	26 April 1821
Died	6 November 1884(1884-11-06) (aged 63)
Nationality	British
Political party	Conservative
Spouse	Mary Edwards ​(m. 1846)​
Children	6, including Charles Vane-Tempest-Stewart, 6th Marquess of Londonderry
Parent(s)	Charles Vane, 3rd Marquess of Londonderry Lady Frances Vane-Tempest
Alma mater	Balliol College, Oxford

George Henry Robert Charles William Vane-Tempest, 5th Marquess of Londonderry, KP (26 April 1821 – 6 November 1884), styled Viscount Seaham between 1823 and 1854 and known as The Earl Vane between 1854 and 1872, was a British aristocrat, businessman, diplomat and Conservative politician.

Background and education

Born George Vane, he was the second son of Charles Vane, 1st Baron Stewart, but his eldest son by his second wife, the former Frances Vane-Tempest, daughter and heiress of Sir Henry Vane-Tempest, 2nd Baronet. His father, born Charles Stewart, was the second surviving son of Robert Stewart, 1st Marquess of Londonderry, and had changed his surname in 1819 on marrying his second wife. The eldest surviving son of the 1st Marquess, and therefore George Vane's uncle, was the statesman Robert Stewart, Viscount Castlereagh, who had succeeded as 2nd Marquess only 20 days before George's birth.

The 2nd Marquess died the next year, and George's father succeeded as 3rd Marquess; George thereby became Lord George Vane. His half-brother (by his father's first wife, and therefore not affected by the surname change), Frederick Stewart, became Viscount Castlereagh by courtesy; he later succeeded as 4th Marquess.

In 1823, the 3rd Marquess was created Earl Vane and Viscount Seaham, with remainder to his sons by his second wife. As the eldest of those sons, Vane became heir apparent to those peerages, and became Viscount Seaham by courtesy.

Lord Seaham was educated at Eton and Balliol College, Oxford.

Political and diplomatic career

Viscount Seaham entered the 1st Life Guards, purchasing a lieutenancy on 7 February 1845, and retiring on 5 May 1848. He was then appointed a Major in the part-time Montgomeryshire Yeomanry on 15 June 1848.

He was returned to parliament for Durham North in 1847, a seat he held until 1854.

That year he succeeded his father as Earl Vane and entered the House of Lords. In 1867 he was sent on a special mission as Envoy Extraordinary to Russia to Emperor Alexander II, to invest the emperor with the Order of the Garter.

When his half-brother, Frederick Stewart, 4th Marquess of Londonderry, died childless in 1872, Earl Vane inherited the marquessate and family estates. Two years later George Vane-Tempest, 5th Marquess, was appointed a Knight of the Order of St Patrick. In 1880 he became Lord-Lieutenant of County Durham, a post he held until his death four years later.

He was appointed Lieutenant-Colonel Commandant of the 2nd (Seaham) Durham Artillery Volunteer Corps on 26 March 1864. This was a part-time unit largely recruited from his family's Seaham Colliery, and his younger brother and later two of his sons also became officers in the unit. The Marquess of Londonderry was succeeded in the command in 1876 by his eldest son.

Business interests

Lord Londonderry managed his father-in-law's estates (see below), which included some of the slate quarries around Corris, Gwynedd, Wales. He was one of the original promoters of the Corris Railway, created to carry the slate from the quarries to the markets. He the chairman of the Newtown and Machynlleth Railway, formed in 1857. and joined the board of the Cambrian Railways, latterly as chairman. He owned lead mines at Van near Llanidloes and was a supporter of the Van Railway, which connected the mines to the Cambrian Railways mainline at Caersws.

He owned 50,000 acres with most of his holdings in Durham and County Down.

Family

Lord Londonderry married Mary Cornelia Edwards, daughter of Sir John Edwards, 1st Baronet, on 3 August 1846. They set up home at Plas Machynlleth, the Edwards family seat, and had six children:

• Lady Frances Cornelia Harriet Vane-Tempest (c. 1851 – 2 March 1872)
• Charles Vane-Tempest-Stewart, 6th Marquess of Londonderry (1852–1915)
• Lord Henry John Vane-Tempest (1 July 1854 – 28 January 1905)
• Lady Avarina Mary Vane-Tempest (c. 1858 – 26 June 1873)
• Lord Herbert Lionel Henry Vane-Tempest (6 July 1862 – 26 January 1921), chairman of the Cambrian Railways, killed in the Abermule train collision
• Lady Alexandrina Louise Maud Vane-Tempest (8 November 1863 – 31 July 1945), married Wentworth Beaumont, 1st Viscount Allendale

Lord Londonderry died in November 1884, aged 63. He was succeeded by his eldest son, Charles.

The Dowager Marchioness of Londonderry, as she became upon her husband's death, remained in residence at Plas Machynlleth, where she entertained Princess Alexandra, Princess of Wales, in 1897. The Dowager Lady Londonderry died in September 1906.

The 6th Marquess left Machynlleth on succeeding to the marquessate, but Lord Herbert remained resident at the Plas. He also served as Chairman of the Cambrian Railways, until he was killed in the Abermule train collision. In August 1945, the 7th Marquess of Londonderry gave the vacant Plas and grounds to the townspeople.

Lady Frances Anne Emily Vane (1822–1899), sister of the 5th Marquess, married The 7th Duke of Marlborough. She was the mother of Lord Randolph Churchill and grandmother of Winston Churchill. On Lord Herbert's death without issue, a trust set up by his grandmother Frances Anne passed to Winston Churchill, who was his first cousin once removed. This enabled Churchill to purchase Chartwell.

Ancestry

References

1. "No. 20440". The London Gazette. 7 February 1845. p. 358.
2. "No. 20853". The London Gazette. 5 May 1848. p. 1746.
3. Arthur Sleigh, The Royal Militia and Yeomanry Cavalry Army List, April 1850, London: British Army Despatch Press, 1850/Uckfield: Naval and Military Press, 1991, ISBN 978-1-84342-410-9, p. 23.
4. Leigh Rayment's Historical List of MPs – Constituencies beginning with "D" (part 4)
5. "No. 23291". The London Gazette. 13 August 1867. p. 4541.
6. Army List.
7. Ian F.W. Beckett, Riflemen Form: A Study of the Rifle Volunteer Movement 1859–1908, Aldershot: Ogilby Trusts, 1982, ISBN 0 85936 271 X, p. 62.
8. "Newtown and Machynlleth Railway". Yr Amserau. 4 March 1857. p. 4.
9. Chapman, Nigel A. (April 2007). The Van Mines (PDF). The Northern Mine Research Society. p. 8.
10. "The great landowners of Great Britain and Ireland; a list of all owners of three thousand acres and upwards ... Also, one thousand three hundred owners of two thousand acres and upwards in England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales, their acreage and income from land culled from the modern Domesday book". 13 March 1883.
11. "The Late Marchioness of Londonderry". Montgomeryshire Express. 25 September 1906. p. 3.
12. Viscountess Allendale portraits
13. "Magnificent jewels and noble jewels". Archived from the original on 1 October 2020. Retrieved 12 May 2013.
14. "News in Brief: Lord Londonderry's Offer". The Times. 11 August 1945. Retrieved 18 October 2024 – via The Times Digital Archive.

External links

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by the Marquess of Londonderry
• CricketArchive: Viscount Seaham

• 1821 births
• 1884 deaths
• Lord-lieutenants of Durham
• Members of the Parliament of the United Kingdom for English constituencies
• Ambassadors of the United Kingdom to the Russian Empire
• Knights of St Patrick
• UK MPs 1847–1852
• UK MPs 1852–1857
• UK MPs who inherited peerages
• English cricketers
• Marylebone Cricket Club cricketers
• Conservative Party (UK) MPs for English constituencies
• Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford
• Vane-Tempest-Stewart family
• English cricketers of 1826 to 1863
• 19th-century British sportsmen
• Presidents of the Marylebone Cricket Club
• British Life Guards officers
• Montgomeryshire Yeomanry officers
• Corris Railway
• Marquesses of Londonderry
• People educated at Eton College