George Townshend, 3rd Marquess Townshend

George Ferrars Townshend, 3rd Marquess Townshend (born December 13, 1778 in London , † December 31, 1855 in Genoa ) aka George Compton was a British nobleman .

Family and education

George Townshend was the eldest son of George Townshend, 2nd Marquess Townshend . When his father was promoted to Earl of Leicester in 1782 , he earned the courtesy title of Lord Chartley , and when the father became Marquess Townshend in 1807 , the son was earl of Leicester . He studied from 1792 to 1796 at Eton and from 1798 at Trinity College , Cambridge .

Marriage to Sarah Gardner

In 1807, Townshend married Sarah Gardner, daughter and heiress of the wealthy landowner William Dunn Gardner, who left him after a year. The marriage was never formally annulled, although Sarah Gardner had applied for ecclesiastical annulment because her husband was impotent and the marriage had not been consummated; he is not "built like a man". In November 1809, Townshend sued a newspaper for defamation of £ 20,000 in damages; the information on the article apparently came from his wife. During the trial it was mentioned that the couple had only spent three nights together. Witnesses reported that Lord Chartley took to the streets in women's clothes while he was a student at Cambridge and was called Lady Chartley in the town . He had a close relationship with his servant. Another contemporary witness described him as a very effeminate young man who wore pink ribbons on his shoes. Townshend, who was now in Paris , was ultimately awarded £ 1,000 in compensation for pain and suffering.

After Sarah Gardner separated from her husband, she married ( legally ineffective because of bigamy ) in 1809 in Gretna Green, the brewer John Margetts. This connection resulted in at least five children who bore the name of their biological father until 1823. Since the marriage to George had never been effectively terminated, the children were initially formally considered legitimate and Townshend as their father. With regard to inheritance claims to his title and property, the children called themselves Townshend from 1823 , their mother Marchioness of Townshend and the eldest son Earl of Leicester . It was not until 1842, at the request of George Townshend's brother Charles, that Sarah's children were declared illegitimate by an Act of Parliament and thus excluded from the line of succession. The eldest son, who was now a member of parliament for Bodmin , then took his mother's maiden name, Dunn Gardner, with royal permission . Sarah Townshend was buried under her noble name, although she married again (legally ineffective) two years before her death in 1858.

Life after marriage

Around 1811, George Townshend was disinherited by his father in favor of his younger brother Charles because of his homosexuality and his transvestism (possibly also transsexuality ) - described as unpleasant occurance (German: unpleasant appearance ). The disinheritance affected substantial parts of the property, but not the nobility titles of his father. On his death in July he inherited his title as 3rd Marquess Townshend, 2nd Earl of Leicester, 6th Viscount Townshend , 18th Baron Ferrers of Chartley , 9th Baron Compton , 6th Baron Townshend and 8th Baronet, of Raynham . He never took his title-related seat in the House of Lords , but lived abroad under the name of Mr. Compton , mainly in Genoa, where he died at the age of 77 and was also buried.

The title Earl of Leicester expired on the death of George Townshend, the baronies Ferrers of Chartley and Compton fell in Abeyance to his three sisters and their descendants. The Marquess and Viscount titles, the Barony Townshend and the Baronetcy inherited his cousin John Townshend as 4th Marquess.

Literature and web links

• Charles Kidd, David Williamson (Eds.): Debrett's Peerage and Baronetage. St Martin's Press, New York 1990.
• George Ferrars Townshend, 3rd Marquess Townshend of Raynham on thepeerage.com

Individual evidence

1. ↑ Ferrars, Lord George . In: John Archibald Venn (Ed.): Alumni Cantabrigienses . A Biographical List of All Known Students, Graduates and Holders of Office at the University of Cambridge, from the Earliest Times to 1900. Part 2: From 1752 to 1900 , Volume 2 : Chalmers – Fytche . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 1944, pp. 486 ( venn.lib.cam.ac.uk Textarchiv - Internet Archive ).
2. ↑ ^{a b} Townshend, George Ferrars on oxforddnb.com
3. ^ Newspaper Reports 1809–1810. In: Rictor Norton (Ed.), Homosexuality in Eighteenth-Century England: A Sourcebook .
4. ^ Obituary for the Marquess Townshend. In: The Gentleman's Magazine. Volume 45. London 1856. p. 182.
5. ^ The Townshend Peerage at hansard.millbanksystems.com.
6. ↑ TOWNSHEND, Lord Charles Vere Ferrars Compton (1785-1853), of 20 Cavendish Square, Mdx. and Rainham Hall, no. Fakenham, Norf. on historyofparliamentonline.org.

predecessor	Office	successor
George Townshend	Marquess Townshend 1811–1855	John Townshend
George Townshend	Earl of Leicester 1811-1855	Title expired
George Townshend	Baron Ferrers of Chartley 1811-1855	Title abeyant
George Townshend	Baron Compton 1811-1855	Title abeyant