John Chichester, 1st Baronet (of Arlington Court)

Sir John Palmer Bruce Chichester, 1st Baronet (* 1794 - December 20, 1851 in London ) was a British nobleman, military man and politician.

origin

John Chichester came from a line of the Chichester family , an old family of gentry from Devon . He was the eldest son of John Palmer Chichester and his second wife Agnes Hamilton . His father had converted from Catholicism to the Anglican Church in 1793 , which means that the family could now also assume the social and political position that they had due to their large estates.

Military service

Young John joined the Royal Navy during the Napoleonic Wars in 1810 . During his service he took part in the defense of Cadiz against the French. During the British-American War he took part in the blockade of the American east coast, where he was wounded in 1814 when a gunboat was hijacked. In 1816 he was promoted to lieutenant , but from 1820 he received only half pay , after which he resigned from the navy in 1822.

Political activity

After his father's death in 1823 he inherited his property. His legacy included the Arlington Court family estate, extensive land holdings in Devon and Llanbadan in Cardiganshire, Wales . In the first few years after his father's death he probably stayed with relatives in Malta and Wales for some time . From 1831 to 1832 he served as the Sheriff of Cardiganshire. As early as 1826 he is said to have unsuccessfully applied for a candidacy for Barnstaple in the general election . In the general election of 1831 he ran successfully in Barnstaple as Whig and as a supporter of the government of Lord Gray . Before his election he campaigned for an electoral reform . He wanted to restrict the right to vote of Freemen who did not live on site , but he moved away from this after his election. In the House of Commons , however, he voted for the electoral reform, but he was evasive when faced with the demand for better parliamentary representation of the Irish people. For this he campaigned for the abolition of the Corn Laws . In the general election of 1832, 1834 and 1837 he was re-elected as a Whigs candidate. In the general election in 1841 he was defeated by Montague Gore . A year earlier, on September 7, 1840, he was on the initiative of the government of Lord Melbourne as a thank you for his support in the House of Commons as Baronet , of Arlington Court in the County of Devon, in the hereditary nobility of the Baronetage of the United Kingdom been raised. In northern Devon he was known as the Arlington Jack . As a supporter of the poor rural population, in contrast to many other rural nobles of his time, he was respected and popular among the population.

The remains of the suspension bridge designed by John Chichester at Arlington Court

Expansion of Arlington Court

Chichester completed the new construction of the mansion of Arlington Court begun by his father and had the interior decorated splendidly. To do this, he had the surrounding landscape park expanded. When he died, however, not all of his plans had been implemented. The new construction of a driveway from the south with a suspension bridge over an artificially dammed lake, which he had begun, was not completed. It is possible that as early as 1850 he had the manor house expanded considerably by adding a side wing; according to other information, the extension was carried out under his son.

Family and inheritance

Chichester had married Caroline Thistlethwayte on August 9, 1838 , daughter of Thomas Thistlethwayte of Southwick Park in Hampshire . With her he had a son and a daughter:

• Sir Alexander Palmer Bruce Chichester, 2nd Baronet (1842-1881);
• Caroline Elizabeth Chichester († 1873) ⚭ Sir George Clay, 3rd Baronet.

His heir became his only, still underage son, Bruce.

literature

• Terry Jenkins: CHICHESTER, John Palmer Bruce (? 1794-1851), of Arlington Court, no. Barnstaple, Devon and 39 Bury Street, Mdx. In: DR Fisher (ed.): The History of Parliament. The House of Commons 1820-1832. Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2009, ISBN 0521193141 .
• Chichester, John Palmer Bruce. In: William Richard O'Byrne: A Naval Biographical Dictionary. John Murray, London 1849, pp. 189-190 ( Wikisource ).

Web links

• National Trust: Sir John Palmer Bruce Chichester
• Sir John Chichester at Hansard (English)
• Sir John Palmer Bruce Chichester, 1st Bt. On thepeerage.com , accessed May 18, 2019.

Individual evidence

1. ^ The Gentleman's Magazine , January 1852, W. Pickering, London 1852, p. 187
2. ^ National Trust (ed.): Arlington Court and the National Trust Carriage Museum . Swindon, National Trust 2009, ISBN 978-1-84359-352-2 , p. 6.
3. ^ National Trust: Sir John Palmer Bruce Chichester. Retrieved May 18, 2019 . 
4. ^ National Trust (ed.): Arlington Court and the National Trust Carriage Museum . Swindon, National Trust 2009, ISBN 978-1-84359-352-2 , p. 7.
5. ^ National Trust (ed.): Arlington Court and the National Trust Carriage Museum . Swindon, National Trust 2009, ISBN 978-1-84359-352-2 , p. 29.
6. ^ National Trust: Sir John Palmer Bruce Chichester. Retrieved May 18, 2019 . 
7. ^ National Trust (ed.): Arlington Court and the National Trust Carriage Museum . Swindon, National Trust 2009, ISBN 978-1-84359-352-2 , p. 8.

predecessor	title	successor
New title created	Baronet, of Arlington Court 1840-1851	Bruce Chichester