George Wyndham, 3rd Earl of Egremont

Georg Wyndham, 3rd Earl of Egremont. Painting by Thomas Phillips

George O'Brien Wyndham, 3rd Earl of Egremont FRS (born December 18, 1751 , † November 11, 1837 in Petworth House ) was a British peer and patron .

Life

George Wyndham was the eldest son of Charles Wyndham, 2nd Earl of Egremont and his wife Alicia Maria Carpenter . When he was 12 years old, his father died. He inherited his titles and his vast estates, and in 1774 he inherited the estates of his uncle Percy Wyndham O'Brien in Ireland , so that he finally owned 445 km² of real estate in south-west England , Cumberland , Yorkshire , Ireland and Sussex . With the inheritance, he also added the name O'Brien to his name. Wyndham attended Westminster School in London, Eton College and Christ Church College in Oxford . Between 1770 and 1772 he undertook two grand tours to Italy. In 1794 he was given the rank of Colonel of the Yeomanry of Sussex. In 1797 he became a member of the Royal Society , in 1800 a member of the Society of Antiquaries of London . From 1819 to 1835 he was Lord Lieutenant of Sussex and from 1820 to 1831 Vice-Admiral of Sussex.

Although politically conservative as he got older, Wyndham was close friends with Whig opposition leader Charles James Fox and paid off part of his gambling debts. Wyndham itself was not politically active and rarely attended the meetings of the House of Lords . In 1794 he sold Cambridge House , his father's London palace. He bought a smaller house on Grosvenor Place instead, but lived mostly on his country estate, Petworth House . He invested part of his enormous fortune in the construction of new roads, canals, a gas works and in the construction of the Royal Suspension Chain Pier in Brighton . Wyndham was considered extremely generous and charitable. He promoted the smallpox vaccination , supported the building of hospitals, schools and the town hall of Petworth . He himself attached little importance to status and title and often invited simple farmers to dinner in his manor house. For the people of the Petworth area he held large celebrations in his park, during the largest of which in May 1834 6,000 people were fed.

Act as an agricultural reformer

Wyndham was very interested in agriculture. In 1793 he became a member of the Board of Agriculture , with whose secretary Arthur Young he was friends, but in 1798 he turned down the presidency of the committee. He was a successful breeder of racehorses himself, his horses won the Derby and Oaks races at Epsom five times . His first racing success at the Epsom Derby , he achieved in 1782 with the Assassin he bred , a descendant of Bleeding Childers , full brother of the successful racing horse Flying Childers .

He also raised cattle and sheep, and in his park at Petworth House not only did he graze deer, but also cattle, sheep and even pigs. When grain became scarce as a result of poor harvests in the 1790s, he had rice and potatoes grown in his park. In addition, he tried to increase the agricultural yield of his goods through crop rotation , irrigation, fertilization and new plows and tools and had rhubarb and poppy seeds grown for opium production .

The North Gallery at Petworth House. Watercolor by Turner, ca.1827

Act as a patron

Wyndham was particularly known as a patron, especially of William Turner . In 1802 he acquired a first painting by Turner, now known as the Egremont Seapiece . In the following years he acquired more paintings by Turner, who was a frequent guest at Petworth House. From 1827 until Wyndham's death, Turner even had his own studio in the manor house. Turner painted a total of twenty oil paintings and around 100 watercolors in Petworth. In addition, Wyndham also acquired paintings and sculptures by other contemporary British artists, including paintings by Joshua Reynolds , William Hogarth , John Constable , George Romney and sculptures by John Flaxman and John Edward Carew . In contrast, he had the majority of his father's painting collection auctioned at Christie's in 1794 . Numerous artists were guests at Petworth House, in addition to Turner, above all William Beechey , Francis Chantrey , Thomas Philipps and Charles Robert Leslie . Wyndham had several alterations made in Petworth House to showcase its works of art. He had the North Gallery expanded as a museum space.

Grave in St Mary's Church in Petworth

Family and offspring

As a young man, Wyndham was a bon vivant and had numerous affairs, including with Elizabeth Lamb . Allegedly he was the father of their two children, Emily and William Lamb . In 1784 Elizabeth Iliffe (1769-1822), the daughter of a teacher at Westminster School, became his lover. She lived in Petworth, first as Miss Iliffe and later as Mrs. Wyndham, and had seven children with the earl. He finally married her on July 16, 1801, but two years later she filed for divorce, left Petworth and never returned. Wyndham had three other children with Eliza Fox , who later became the Prince Regent's lover . He recognized a total of 43 children as his, but he had no legitimate male heir.

After his death, Petworth House fell to his eldest son George Wyndham, who had started a military career in 1799 and was finally promoted to Lord Leconfield in 1859. The title of Earl of Egremont was inherited by his nephew George Francis Wyndham , who died in 1845 without a male heir, so that the title became extinct.

One of the descendants of George Wyndham is the British writer Henry Green .

literature

• Wyndham, George O'Brien . In: Sidney Lee (Ed.): Dictionary of National Biography . Volume 63:  Wordsworth - Zuylestein. , MacMillan & Co, Smith, Elder & Co., New York City / London 1900, p. 244 (English).
• Christopher Rowell: The 3rd Earl of Egremont. In: Petworth House. The National Trust, 1997, pp. 82-89

Web links

Commons : George Wyndham, 3rd Earl of Egremont  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

• Christopher Rowell: Wyndham, George O'Brien, third earl of Egremont (1751-1837). In: Henry Colin Gray Matthew, Brian Harrison (Eds.): Oxford Dictionary of National Biography , from the earliest times to the year 2000 (ODNB). Oxford University Press, Oxford 2004, ISBN 0-19-861411-X , ( oxforddnb.com license required ), as of 2004
• Cracroft's Peerage: Earl of Egremont

Single receipts

1. ↑ Jeremy Treglown: Romancing. The Life and Work of Henry Green . Random House, New York 2000, ISBN 0-679-43303-1 . P. 10

predecessor	Office	successor
Charles Wyndham	Earl of Egremont 1763-1837	George Wyndham