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The Most HonourableThe Marquess of ClanricardeKP PC
The Marquess of Clanricarde
Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal
In office 3 February 1858 (1858-02-03) – 21 February 1858 (1858-02-21)
Monarch	Victoria
Prime Minister	The Viscount Palmerston
Preceded by	The Earl of Harrowby
Succeeded by	The Earl of Hardwicke
Postmaster General
In office 7 July 1846 (1846-07-07) – 21 February 1852 (1852-02-21)
Prime Minister	Lord John Russell
Preceded by	The Earl of St Germans
Succeeded by	The Earl of Hardwicke
British Ambassador to Russia
In office 1838–1840
Prime Minister	The Viscount Melbourne
Preceded by	The Earl of Durham
Succeeded by	The Lord Stuart de Rothesay
Captain of the Yeomen of the Guard
In office 1 December 1830 (1830-12-01) – 16 July 1834 (1834-07-16)
Monarch	William IV
Prime Minister	The Earl Grey
Preceded by	The Earl of Macclesfield
Succeeded by	The Earl of Gosford
Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs
In office 2 January 1826 (1826-01-02) – 17 August 1826 (1826-08-17)Serving with The Lord Howard de Walden
Monarch	George IV
Prime Minister	The Earl of Liverpool
Preceded by	The Lord Howard de Walden Lord Francis Conyngham
Succeeded by	The Lord Howard de Walden
Honorary Appointments Lord Lieutenant of Galway In office 1831–1874 Preceded by Office created Succeeded by The Lord Clonbrock Vice-Admiral of Connaught In office 1841–1847
Parliamentary Offices Member of the House of Lords Lord Temporal Hereditary Peerage (Baron Somerhill) 13 December 1826 – 10 April 1874 Preceded by New Creation Succeeded by Hubert de Burgh-Canning
Personal details
Born	Ulick John de Burgh (1802-12-20)20 December 1802 Belmont, Hampshire
Died	10 April 1874(1874-04-10) (aged 71) Stratton Street, Piccadilly, London
Nationality	British
Political party	Tory Whig
Spouse	Hon. Harriet Canning ​ ​(m. 1825)​
Children	7
Parents	The 13th Earl of Clanricarde Elizabeth Burke
Education	Eton College
Alma mater	Christ Church, Oxford
Military career
Allegiance	United Kingdom
Service / branch	British Army
Years of service	1831–1874
Rank	Colonel
Commands	Galway Militia

Ulick John de Burgh, 1st Marquess of Clanricarde KP PC (English: /ˈjuːlɪk dəˈbɜːr ... klænˈrɪkɑːrd/ YOO-lik də-BUR ... klan-RIK-ard; 20 December 1802 – 10 April 1874), styled Lord Dunkellin (/dʌnˈkɛlɪn/ dun-KEL-in) until 1808 and the Earl of Clanricarde from 1808 until 1825, was a British Whig politician who served as British Ambassador to Russia (1838–40), Postmaster General (1846–52) and Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal (1858).

Background and education

Born at Belmont, Hampshire, Clanricarde was the son of General The 13th Earl of Clanricarde and Elizabeth, daughter of Sir Thomas Burke, 1st Baronet. Henry, 1st Marquess of Clanricarde, was his uncle. He succeeded in the earldom in July 1808 at the age of five, on the death of his father. He was educated at Eton College. The young 14th Earl of Clanricarde was a member of the Anglican Church, like his father, although his mother was a Catholic.

Lord Clanricarde was an active Freemason as a young man. While studying as an undergraduate at Christ Church, Oxford, he was initiated into the Apollo University Lodge No. 711 (later No. 357) of the United Grand Lodge of England on 15 November 1820.

Political and diplomatic career

In 1825, at the age of 24, Clanricarde was created Marquess of Clanricarde in the Peerage of Ireland, a revival of the title which had become extinct on his uncle's death in 1797. The following year he was made Baron Somerhill, of Somerhill in the County of Kent, in the Peerage of the United Kingdom, which entitled him to a seat in the House of Lords. In January 1826 the Earl of Liverpool appointed him as Joint Under-Secretary of State for Foreign Affairs (alongside Lord Howard de Walden), a post he held until August of the same year. He was sworn of the Privy Council in December 1830.

Between 1838 and 1840, Lord Clanricarde served as British Ambassador to Russia. In 1846, he was appointed Postmaster General, with a seat in the cabinet, by Lord John Russell, an office he retained until the government fell in 1852. He held his last ministerial post when he was briefly Lord Keeper of the Privy Seal under Lord Palmerston for a few weeks in February 1858. Apart from his political career, he was also Lord-Lieutenant of County Galway between 1831 and 1874, Colonel of the Galway Militia from 1831 and Vice-Admiral of Connaught from 1841 until 1847. In 1831, he was made a Knight of the Order of St Patrick.

Great Hunger

Lord Clanricarde was a substantial landowner in County Galway, with his Norman-descended family having their seat at Portumna Castle. During the years of the Great Hunger in Ireland, his record was mixed. A supporter of the British Whigs and a sitting member of the Russell Ministry, his principal aim was upholding the interests of the Anglo-Irish landowning class.

Although he did not initiate mass clearances of destitute tenants from the estates, as Lord Palmerston and Lord Lansdowne were notoriously known for, there were more small-scale displacements over a longer period of time. Clanricarde was the Crown's Lord Lieutenant of Galway during the Famine and did not condemn the large-scale evictions by his fellow Galway landowners, John Gerrard (and his wife Marcella Netterville) at Ballinlass, Christopher St George at Connemara and Patrick Blake at Tully.

On the other hand, Clanricarde highlighted, in his correspondence with Russell and the Whig administration in Ireland, the plight of starving tenants. He advocated a paternalistic state intervention, rather than a purely laissez-faire approach. He suggested state-sponsored public works and land drainage and sought to have corn depots set up in Loughrea and Portumna to distribute food. He donated some monies to local relief committees. Clanricarde also financially assisted the emigration of poor tenants; this issue is controversial due to the fact that it still meant the displacement of the native population from the land, but supporters argue that it would have at least saved more lives (Charles Trevelyan opposed such programmes). Lord Clanricarde did not initiate any private work schemes on the estates under his control for tenants, like some neighbouring landlords, nor did he improve agriculture on the estates.

Family

Lord Clanricarde married Harriet Canning (13 April 1804 – 8 January 1876), daughter of Prime Minister George Canning, on 4 April 1825 at Gloucester Lodge in Brompton. The couple had seven children:

• Lady Elizabeth Joanna de Burgh (22 February 1826 – 26 February 1854); married the 4th Earl of Harewood
• Ulick Canning de Burgh, Lord Dunkellin (12 July 1827 – 16 August 1867)
• Lady Emily Charlotte de Burgh (19 October 1828 – 10 October 1912); married the 9th Earl of Cork
• Lady Catherine de Burgh (c. 1830 – 8 April 1895); married John Weyland, and together they had a son.
• Lady Margaret Anne de Burgh (c. 1831 – 31 March 1888); married the 1st Baron Allendale
• Hubert George de Burgh-Canning, 2nd Marquess of Clanricarde (30 November 1832 – 12 April 1916)
• Lady Harriet Augusta de Burgh (c. 1834 – 18 January 1901); married Thomas Frederick Charles Vernon-Wentworth, maternal grandson of the 1st Marquess of Ailesbury. They had a son and a daughter.

Lord Clanricarde died at Stratton Street, Piccadilly, London, in April 1874, aged 71, and was succeeded in the marquessate by his second but only surviving son, Hubert. The Marchioness of Clanricarde died in January 1876, aged 71.

Honours and Arms

Honours

Country	Date	Appointment	Ribbon	Post-nominals
United Kingdom	1830–1874	Privy Council (United Kingdom)		PC
United Kingdom	1831–1874	Knight of the Most Illustrious Order of St Patrick		KP

Arms

Coat of arms of Ulick de Burgh, 1st Marquess of Clanricarde

Crest A Cat-a-Mountain sejant guardant proper, collared and chained Or. Escutcheon Or, a cross gules in the first quarter a lion rampant sable. Supporters Two Cats-a-Mountain sejant guardant proper, collared and chained Or. Motto UNG ROY, UNG FOY, UNG LOY (One king, one faith, one law) Orders Order of St Patrick

Ancestry

See also

• House of Burgh, an Anglo-Norman and Hiberno-Norman dynasty founded in 1193

References

Citations

1. ^ "Landlord during the Workhouse Years". IrishWorkhouseCentre.ie. 19 November 2017.
2. "Alphabetical List of Fellows of the Royal Society who were Freemasons" (PDF). The Library and Museum of Freemasonry. 19 November 2017. Archived from the original (PDF) on 27 May 2018. Retrieved 26 May 2018.
3. "No. 18182". The London Gazette. 8 October 1825. p. 1813.
4. "No. 18259". The London Gazette. 17 June 1826. p. 1478.
5. "No. 18753". The London Gazette. 3 December 1830. p. 2537.
6. Cokayne, G. E. (1889). The Complete Peerage of England, Scotland, Ireland, Great Britain, and the United Kingdom Extant, Extinct, or Dormant. Vol. 2 (1st ed.). London: George Bell & Sons. pp. 261.
7. "No. 18863". The London Gazette. 21 October 1831. p. 2167.
8. McDowell, R. B. (2004). "Burgh, Ulick John de, first marquess of Clanricarde (1802–1874), politician". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/37245. ISBN 978-0-19-861412-8. Retrieved 21 December 2021. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
9. Burke, John; Burke, Bernard (1844). Encyclopædia of Heraldry: Or General Armory of England, Scotland, and Ireland, Comprising a Registry of All Armorial Bearings from the Earliest to the Present Time, Including the Late Grants by the College of Arms. H. G. Bohn.
10. Burke, Bernard (1884). The General Armory of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales; comprising a registry of armorial bearings from the earliest to the present time. University of California Libraries. London: Harrison & Sons.

Bibliography

• McDowell, R. B. (2004). "Burgh, Ulick John de, first marquess of Clanricarde (1802–1874), politician". Oxford Dictionary of National Biography (online ed.). Oxford University Press. doi:10.1093/ref:odnb/37245. ISBN 978-0-19-861412-8. Retrieved 21 December 2021. (Subscription or UK public library membership required.)
• Burke, John; Burke, Bernard (1844). Encyclopædia of Heraldry: Or General Armory of England, Scotland, and Ireland, Comprising a Registry of All Armorial Bearings from the Earliest to the Present Time, Including the Late Grants by the College of Arms. H. G. Bohn.
• Burke, Bernard (1884). The General Armory of England, Scotland, Ireland, and Wales; comprising a registry of armorial bearings from the earliest to the present time. University of California Libraries. London: Harrison & Sons.

External links

• "Archival material relating to Ulick de Burgh, 1st Marquess of Clanricarde". UK National Archives.

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