Henry Vassall-Fox, 3rd Baron Holland
The Lord Holland | |
|---|---|
 Portrait of Lord Holland bySir George Hayter,1820.National Portrait Gallery,London. | |
| Lord Privy Seal | |
| In office 8 October 1806 – 31 March 1807 | |
| Monarch | George III |
| Prime Minister | The Lord Grenville |
| Preceded by | The Viscount Sidmouth |
| Succeeded by | The Earl of Westmorland |
| Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster | |
| In office 25 November 1830 – 14 November 1834 | |
| Monarch | William IV |
| Prime Minister | The Earl Grey The Viscount Melbourne |
| Preceded by | Charles Arbuthnot |
| Succeeded by | Charles Williams-Wynn |
| In office 20 February 1835 – 22 October 1840 | |
| Monarchs | William IV Victoria |
| Prime Minister | The Viscount Melbourne |
| Preceded by | Charles Williams-Wynn |
| Succeeded by | The Earl of Clarendon |
| Personal details | |
| Born | 21 November 1773 Winterslow House,Wiltshire |
| Died | 22 October 1840(aged 66) |
| Nationality | British |
| Political party | Whig |
| Spouse | Elizabeth Vassall |
| Children | 7, including: Charles Richard Fox Henry Fox, 4th Baron Holland |
| Parent(s) | Stephen Fox, 2nd Baron Holland Lady Mary FitzPatrick |
| Alma mater | Christ Church, Oxford |
Henry Richard Vassall-Fox, 3rd Baron Holland of Holland,and3rd Baron Holland of FoxleyPC(21 November 1773 – 22 October 1840), was an English politician and a major figure inWhigpolitics in the early 19th century. A grandson ofHenry Fox, 1st Baron Holland,and nephew ofCharles James Fox,he served asLord Privy Sealbetween 1806 and 1807 in theMinistry of All the Talentsheaded byLord Grenvilleand asChancellor of the Duchy of Lancasterbetween 1830 and 1834 and again between 1835 and his death in 1840 in the Whig administrations ofLord GreyandLord Melbourne.
Background and education[edit]
Holland was born at Winterslow House,Wiltshire,[1]the son ofStephen Fox, 2nd Baron Holland(1745–1774), and Lady Mary FitzPatrick, daughter ofJohn FitzPatrick, 1st Earl of Upper Ossory,and Lady Evelyn, daughter ofJohn Leveson-Gower, 1st Earl Gower.His paternal grandparents wereHenry Fox, 1st Baron Holland,andLady Caroline Lennox,the eldest of the famousLennox sistersand a great-granddaughter (through an illegitimate line) ofKing Charles II.
He succeeded in the baronies in December 1774, aged one, on the early death of his father, while his mother died shortly before his fifth birthday. He was educated atEtonandChrist Church, Oxford,[1]where he became the friend ofGeorge CanningandJohn Hookham Frere.Lord Holland's uncle was the great Whig oratorCharles James Fox,and he remained steadily loyal to the Whig party.[1]
Political career[edit]
On a visit to Paris in 1791, Holland became acquainted withLafayetteandTalleyrand.He took his seat in theHouse of Lordson 5 October 1796. According to the1911 edition of theEncyclopædia Britannicahe for a while "almost... constituted the Whig party in the upper house". He was appointed tonegotiate a treatywith American envoysJames MonroeandWilliam Pinkney,[1]was admitted to thePrivy Councilon 27 August 1806,[2]and on 15 October entered theMinistry of All the Talentsled byLord GrenvilleasLord Privy Seal,[3]retiring with the rest of his colleagues in March 1807.
Holland led the opposition to the Regency Bill in 1811, and he attacked the orders in council and other strong measures of the government taken to counteractNapoleon's Berlin Decrees. He denounced the treaty of 1813 with Sweden which bound Britain to consent to the forcible union of Norway, and he resisted the bill of 1816 for confining Napoleon inSaint Helena.[1]He wasChancellor of the Duchy of Lancasterbetween 1830 and 1834[4]and 1835 and 1840[5]in the cabinets ofLord GreyandLord Melbourne,and he was still in office when he died in October 1840.[1]
Ownership of slaves[edit]
With theSlave Compensation Act 1837in the aftermath of theSlavery Abolition Act 1833,the government paid compensation to former slaveholders.[6]Lord Holland was compensated under three awards for slaves on his estates in Jamaica, which had come to him through his wife, Elizabeth Webster (née Vassall).[7]
Writings[edit]
Holland's protests against the measures of the Tory ministers were collected and published, as theOpinions of Lord Holland(1841), by Dr Moylan ofLincoln's Inn.Lord Holland's Foreign Reminiscences(1850)[8]contain much amusing gossip from the Revolutionary and Napoleonic era. HisMemoirs of the Whig Party(1852; 2 vols.)[9]is an important contemporary authority. He also published a small work onLope de Vega(1806)[1][10]and a 2-volume work (1817) on the lives and writings of Lope de Vega andGuillén de Castro.[11][12]His whimsical short storyEve's Legend,in which the only vowel used is the letter E, is considered a precursor to the constraints of theOuliposchool.[13]
Family[edit]
After visiting Paris in 1791 Holland again went abroad to travel in France and Italy in 1793. At Florence he met Elizabeth Vassall, at that time Lady Webster, wife ofSir Godfrey Webster, 4th Baronet.She and her husband obtained a divorce, and she married Holland on 6 July 1797, becomingElizabeth Fox, Baroness Holland.An illegitimate son,Charles Richard Fox,was born to them. He later rose to become a General in theBritish Army.
They had three more children who survived infancy: the Hon. Stephen Fox (d. 1800),Henry Edward Fox, 4th Baron Holland,and Hon. Mary Elizabeth Fox, married toThomas Powys, 3rd Baron Lilford.In 1800 he was authorised to take the name of Vassall, and after 1807 he signed himself Vassall Holland, though the name was no part of his title.[1]Lord Holland died in October 1840, aged 66, and was succeeded in his titles by his eldest and only surviving legitimate son, Henry. Lady Holland died in November 1845.
Vassall ward[edit]
Vassall wardin theLondon Borough of Lambethis named after Henry Richard Vassall-Fox who was responsible for the first building development in the area in the 1820s. Roads in the area such as Holland Grove, Lord Holland Lane, Foxley Square and Vassall Road commemorate this connection.
References[edit]
- ^abcdefghOne or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain:Chisholm, Hugh,ed. (1911). "Holland, Henry Richard Vassall Fox, 3rd Baron".Encyclopædia Britannica.Vol. 13 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 586–587.
- ^"No. 15949".The London Gazette.26 August 1806. p. 1121.
- ^"No. 15966".The London Gazette.14 October 1806. p. 1361.
- ^"No. 18750".The London Gazette.26 November 1830. p. 2479.
- ^"No. 19263".The London Gazette.24 April 1835. p. 808.
- ^Kathleen Mary Butler: The Economics of Emancipation: Jamaica and Barbados, 1823-1843. UNC Press Books, 2017
- ^"Henry Richard Vassall-Fox, 3rd Baron Holland: Profile and Legacies Summary."Center for the Study of the Legacies of British Slavery,University College London. Retrieved on 11 October 2022.
- ^Foreign Reminiscencesby Henry Richard Lord Holland; edited by his son Henry Edward Lord Holland.London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans. 1850.
- ^Memoirs of the Whig Partyby Henry Richard Lord Holland; edited by his son Henry Edward Lord Holland.London: Longman, Brown, Green, and Longmans. 1852.
- ^Holland, Henry Richard Vassall, Baron (1806).Some account of the life and writings of Lope Felix de Vega Carpio.London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme.
{{cite book}}:CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^Holland, Henry Richard Vassal, Baron (1817).Some account of the lives and writings of Lope Felix de Vega Carpio and Guillen de Castro.London: Longman, Hurst, Rees, Orme, and Brown.
{{cite book}}:CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link) - ^"Review ofSome Account of the Lives and Writings of Lope Felix de Vega Carpio, and Guillen de Castroby Henry Richard Lord Holland ".The Quarterly Review.18:1–46. October 1817.
- ^The Penguin book of Oulipo.Terry, Philip, 1962-. [London]. 2019.ISBN978-0-241-37842-7.OCLC1112383038.
{{cite book}}:CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link) CS1 maint: others (link)
External links[edit]
- Works by Henry Vassall-Fox, 3rd Baron HollandatProject Gutenberg
- Works by Henry Vassall-Fox, 3rd Baron HollandatLibriVox(public domain audiobooks)
