John Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck, 5th Duke of Portland

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John Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck, 5th Duke of Portland

William John Cavendish Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck, 5th Duke of Portland ( September 18, 1800 , † December 6, 1879 ) was a British peer who preferred a secluded life. He was known to be an eccentric .

Life

He was the second eldest son of William Scott-Bentinck, 4th Duke of Portland , and his wife Henrietta Scott. His father added the family name "Scott-Bentinck" to 1801 to "Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck". He was home-schooled and commonly called by his middle name John , since all the male members of the family were named William . One of his sisters later married Evelyn Denison, 1st Viscount Ossington .

In 1818 he joined the British Army as Ensign of the Grenadier Guards and was promoted to lieutenant in July . In November 1818 he joined the 10th Hussars as Cornett and in 1821 he became captain of the 7th Hussars . In 1823 he became captain of the 2nd Life Guards , was captain of the Royal West India Rangers from 1824 to 1830 and finally retired from military service in 1830 as captain of the Grenadier Guards.

His eldest brother William Henry died in 1824, so that he now bore the courtesy title of Marquess of Titchfield as his father's apparent marriage . In the same year he was elected to the House of Commons for Borough King’s Lynn , which his brother had held until then. He belonged to the Tory party . Due to his poor health, he renounced in the general election in 1826 in favor of his uncle Lord William Cavendish-Bentinck on a candidacy and resigned from parliament. In the next few years he stayed on the continent for a while, but was repeatedly plagued by memory loss and sciatica .

Before he inherited his father as the 5th Duke of Portland in 1854 and thereby became a member of the House of Lords , he was not noticed as an eccentric. From one day to the next he turned away from society and tried to avoid all human contact. In 1857 he retired to his country estate Welbeck Abbey in Nottinghamshire and from then on only communicated in writing with the outside world. His servants were not allowed to speak to him and were instructed not to take notice of him. When he was out in the carriage, he kept a low profile so that no one could see him. In the last years of his life he only left his possessions at night. In 1879 he died unmarried and without children. His titles of nobility fell to his second nephew. The reason for his strange behavior after 1857 is still unclear today.

literature

  • Thomas Meyhöfer: The riddle of the dark countess of Hildburghausen. 2007, p. 35.
  • Bentinck, William John. In: Colin Matthew (Ed.): Oxford Dictionary of National Biography . Oxford University Press, Oxford 1995.

Web links

predecessor Office successor
William Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck Duke of Portland
1854-1879 		William Cavendish-Bentinck
personal data
SURNAME Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck, John, 5th Duke of Portland
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck, William John Cavendish, 5th Duke of Portland (full name); Portland, John Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck 5th Duke of; Cavendish-Scott-Bentinck, John, Marquess of Titchfield; Scott-Bentinck, William John Cavendish
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British peer and eccentric
DATE OF BIRTH September 18, 1800
DATE OF DEATH December 6, 1879