Oaks Park (London)
Oaks Park is a public park in Carshalton in the London Borough of Sutton. It is bounded on the south by Croydon Lane, on the east by Woodmansterne Road; the park was laid out for the Earl of Derby in the 1770s and changes made for John Burgoyne in the 1790s for the existing villa. The fashionable landscape style was employed with trees forming a perimeter screen and placed in artful clumps to suggest a natural landscape; the house, rebuilt by Robert Taylor for John Burgoyne in 1775 and Robert Adam for the 12th Earl of Derby in 1790, was demolished between 1956 and 1960 but the bakehouse, stable block and some outbuildings remain. An archeological investigation was carried out by Carshalton and District History and Archeology Society in July 2009; the estate lent its name to the Oaks horserace, inaugurated by the Earl in 1779 and is run annually during the Derby meeting at Epsom Downs Racecourse, about 4 miles to the west. The original Oaks Race ran from Barrow Hedges, north of The Oaks and through Oaks Park before heading west to the site of the current Epsom Downs Racecourse.
Part of the off-road route still exists. There is a public golf course and sports centre forming part of the open space; the park itself contains a craft centre, a café and a downland countryside walk. The Oaks Sport Centre has a new indoor climbing and caving centre. There is a bridle path that goes around the perimeter of the park for riding and walking; the park is on a section of the National Cycle Network. A leisure trail along the River Wandle from Wandsworth, passes close to the park at Carshalton and is available from the Sustrans website. South of the park and close Croydon Lane is the Mayfield Lavender Field; the field is spectacular during the midsummer months, filling the park with lavender aroma. The nearest railway station to the park is at Carshalton Beeches, less than a mile walk along Woodmansterne Road. Trains serve various places in South London from here; the 166 bus route serves the park at the Croydon Lane end of the park. The bus route serves Banstead and Croydon. Carshalton Park Grove Park Oaks Park Sports Centre A local guide to the North Downs Map of area from Streetmap Carshalton & District History & Archeology Society The Oaks Park Mansion House Report on an excavation in July 2009
James Smith-Stanley, Lord Strange
James Smith-Stanley, Lord Strange was known by that title, though neither he nor his father had any claim to it. He was the eldest son of Edward Stanley, 11th Earl of Derby, whose predecessor's heirs had used that courtesy title, but the right to two successive baronies Lord Strange had descended to daughters, when the earldom had passed to the heir male. James Stanley married Lucy daughter and coheir of Hugh Smith of Weald Hall and took the additional surname Smith on his marriage; this marriage produced Edward Smith-Stanley, 12th Earl of Derby and several other children, including Thomas Stanley. He died before his father, he attended Westminster School where he became a close friend of the future soldier and politician John Burgoyne, to surrender his army at Saratoga in 1777. As a young man, Burgoyne eloped with Lord Strange's sister. Burgoyne wrote a masque to celebrate the wedding of Edward Smith-Stanley to Lady Elizabeth Hamilton, a daughter of James Hamilton, 6th Duke of Hamilton. Lord Strange was a Member of Parliament for Lancashire from 1741 until his death.
He was Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster in the ministry of Lord North from 1762 and became a Privy Councillor at the same time. He is mentioned by Parkman as plenipotentiary to Paris and Choiseul, advisor to Pitt, during the 1760s turbulence that attended the Treaty of Paris
Manchester Bolton & Bury Canal
The Manchester Bolton & Bury Canal is a disused canal in Greater Manchester, built to link Bolton and Bury with Manchester. The canal, when opened, was 15 miles 1 furlong long, it was accessed via a junction with the River Irwell in Salford. Seventeen locks were required to climb to the summit as it passed through Pendleton, heading northwest to Prestolee before it split northwest to Bolton and northeast to Bury. Between Bolton and Bury the canal required no locks. Six aqueducts were built to allow the canal to cross the rivers Irwell and Tonge and several minor roads; the canal was commissioned in 1791 by local landowners and businessmen and built between 1791 and 1808, during the Golden Age of canal building, at a cost of £127,700. Designed for narrow gauge boats, during its construction the canal was altered into a broad gauge canal to allow an unrealised connection with the Leeds and Liverpool Canal; the canal company converted into a railway company and built a railway line close to the canal's path, which required modifications to the Salford arm of the canal.
Most of the freight carried was coal from local collieries but, as the mines reached the end of their working lives sections of the canal fell into disuse and disrepair and it was abandoned in 1961. In 1987 a society was formed with the aim of restoring the canal for leisure use and, in 2006, restoration began in the area around the junction with the River Irwell in Salford; the canal is navigable as far as Oldfield Road, Salford. The local geology of the Irwell Valley, which included steep sided valleys with fast flowing rivers subject to rapid flooding and dry seasons, confined local river transport to the Mersey and Irwell Navigation, west of Manchester. Financial unrest and British involvement in the American Revolutionary War restricted local transport investment to road improvements. With the arrival of more favourable conditions, including the end of the war, a proposal for a canal to link the towns of Manchester and Bury was mooted. Matthew Fletcher had in 1789 been employed as a technical advisor and had surveyed the route of the proposed canal, but the first public notice came from Manchester on 4 September 1790.
The initial proposal came from a group in Bolton, with the support of the Mersey and Irwell Navigation Company. A meeting was "intended to be holden at the House of Mr Shawe, the Bull's Head in Manchester aforesaid, on Monday, the twentieth day of this instant, September, at eleven o'clock in the forenoon", where "Surveys, Levels and Proposals" would be presented. A further meeting on 16 September, held in Bolton, appointed a committee of six Boltonians chaired by Lord Grey de Wilton to attend at Manchester. A series of resolutions at this meeting followed a discussion of the route, authorised the necessary actions to bring the plan into fruition, which included the petitioning of Parliament for the required bill. Hugh Henshall was asked to survey the proposed route of the canal. For local industries along the route of the proposed canal, whose operations relied on water from local rivers and brooks which the canal might use, its construction was a controversial idea. At a meeting in Bolton on 4 October 1790, it was resolved that "proper clauses be inserted in the bill to prevent injury to owners of mills".
A meeting in Bury at the Eagle & Child public house on 29 September 1790 secured an agreement that "the utility of this scheme cannot with propriety be ascertained until such time as it has been certified, from whence and in what proportion the proprietors of the intended navigation expect to draw their resources of water". At another meeting in Bury, on 13 October 1790, Hugh Henshall gave a written report on the canal, stated that his plan would not require water from the river in times of drought, but that floods and rivulets would supply his reservoirs, he suggested that mill owners could be protected by a suitable clause in the bill, such a clause was duly obtained by Robert Peel. Businesses in Bolton were concerned with the location of the canal terminus, proposed the construction of a tunnel to allow the terminus to be built closer to the town centre. Ralph Fletcher, spokesman for those concerned, reported on this proposal to the committee, although no tunnel was built. In a document entitled "A list of subscribers to the intended Bolton Bury and Manchester Canal Navigation", now kept in the Greater Manchester County Record Office, some of the more notable subscribers are listed, along with the amounts invested by each.
Many of the 95 investments on the list appear to have been made by proxy. The largest is £3,000, the smallest £100; the total sum of investments is £47,700. £5 per £100 share was paid, with an additional £10 call made by 10 August 1791. Similar share calls were made at regular intervals over the following years; the first dividend of 4% was paid in July 1812, with regular payments following thereafter. Following a parliamentary survey of the route by Charles McNiven, the bill received Royal Assent on 13 May 1791 and became an Act of Parliament for the construction of the canal, by which "the proprietors were empowered to purchase land for a breadth of 26 yards on level ground, wider where required for cuttings or embankments." The Act allowed the company to raise £47,000, with shares of £100. The intention was that at Prestolee the route would divide into two branches, with one branch towards Bolton and the other to Bury, but it would not, join the River Irwell; the proprietors were entitled to take water from any brooks within 1,000 yards of the canal, or within 3 miles of the canal summits at Bolton and Bury.
At a meeting in Manches
Fox–North coalition
The Fox–North coalition was a government in Great Britain that held office during 1783. As the name suggests, the ministry was a coalition of the groups supporting Charles James Fox and Lord North; the official head was William Cavendish-Bentinck, 3rd Duke of Portland, who took office on 2 April 1783. Fox was a Whig by background and North came from the nominal Tory Party, however both had fallen out with the government of Lord Shelburne, they combined their forces in the House of Commons to throw out the Shelburne ministry and formed a government of their own. King George III despised the government and Fox in particular but found that no other ministry could be formed at this stage despite several offers to William Pitt the Younger; as a result, the King declined to provide the government with the normal tools of patronage and they were forced to look elsewhere. The Treaty of Paris was signed during his government on 3 September 1783, formally ending the American Revolutionary War; the government came under strain when from the opposition Pitt introduced a proposal for electoral reform to tackle bribery and rotten boroughs.
The proposal did not pass but caused tensions within the coalition which contained both proponents and opponents of political reform. The British East India Company was in trouble and Fox proposed nationalising it, thus providing the government with a new source of appointments so they could reward and maintain support; the East India Bill was introduced and passed in the Commons but the King remained opposed. He informed the House of Lords; the bill was defeated on 17 December 1783 and the King dismissed the coalition. It was succeeded by a government formed by William Pitt the Younger. After being dismissed and North tried to force Pitt from power through defeat in the House of Commons, but he refused to resign; the response of opinion in the country, evidenced by petitions, resolutions of borough corporations and the actions of the London mobs, showed strong opposition to the coalition and support for Pitt. In March 1784 a general election was called in which Pitt's government made massive gains in constituencies decided by popular votes.
Black, Jeremy. George III: America’s Last King. Yale University Press. ISBN 0300117329. Pares, Richard. King George III and the Politicians. London. Trevelyan, George Otto. George the Third and Charles Fox: The Concluding Part of the American Revolution. 2 vols. online edition v2 Watson, J. Steven; the Reign of George III, 1760–1815. The standard scholarly history online edition
George Romney (painter)
George Romney was an English portrait painter. He was the most fashionable artist of his day, painting many leading society figures – including his artistic muse, Emma Hamilton, mistress of Lord Nelson. Romney was born in Beckside in Dalton-in-Furness, the 3rd son of John Romney, cabinet maker, Anne Simpson. Raised in a cottage named High Cocken in modern-day Barrow-in-Furness, he was sent to school at nearby Dendron, he appears to have been an indifferent student and was withdrawn at the age of 11 and apprenticed to his father's business instead. He proved to have a natural ability for making things from wood -- including violins. From the age of 15, he was taught art informally by a local watchmaker called John Williamson, but his studies began in earnest in 1755, when he went to Kendal, at the age of 21, for a 4-year apprenticeship with local artist Christopher Steele – a portraitist who had himself studied with distinguished French artist Carlo Vanloo. All costs were to be borne by George's father.
In October 1756, Romney married Mary Abbot, but the couple were separated when he was called away to York on business by his employer. After a year, Steele agreed to cancel the apprenticeship, at George's request, leaving the young artist – now a father of a son – free to pursue his own career as a painter. In 1757, Romney rejoined his wife and young son in Kendal, working as a portraitist and historical painter. In this period he became friends with Adam Walker, the inventor and writer, pursued musical interests in his spare time. In March 1762, he parted from his wife and daughter, to seek his fortune in London, where he stayed until 1799. Throughout the separation, he maintained contact with his family and financially supported them, but they never lived with him in the capital. In 1763, Romney entered his painting, The Death of General Wolfe, into a Royal Society of Arts competition. According to friends of Romney, he was awarded the second prize of 50 guineas, but this was to reduced to 25 guineas on questionable grounds.
It is said that Sir Joshua Reynolds himself was the prime mover behind this decision, a fact which may have accounted for the lifelong aversion of the two men for each other. Despite his success, Romney was never invited to join the Royal Academy of Arts, though he was asked, urged to exhibit there – nor did he apply to join; this decision cost him valuable royal patronage and support from others connected at court. While there has been much speculation about his actual relationship with the Academy, there is no doubt that he remained aloof, maintaining that a good artist should succeed without being a member, his own career supported this belief, it was only towards the end of his life that he expressed the slightest regret for his views. His early years in the capital were something of a struggle financially. In September 1764, he travelled to Paris for a few weeks to study the works of the old masters. In 1765 he again won the second prize of 50 guineas in the Royal Society of Arts competition.
In 1768, he made the acquaintance of Richard Cumberland, the dramatist, whose portrait he painted, and, helpful in introducing him to influential patrons. He became friends with miniature painter Ozias Humphrey. 1769 was a breakthrough year – he exhibited a large portrait of Sir George Warren and family at the Free Society of Artists, admired and helped to lay the foundations of his future popularity. In 1770 he started to exhibit his work at the Chartered Society of Artists rather the rival "Free Society of Artists". By 1772 Romney was financially secure enough to make the journey to Italy to study the great artists of the past, as he had always intended, he set off in March, arriving in Rome in June. A letter of introduction allowed him to meet the Pope, Clement XIV, who allowed him to set up scaffolding in the Vatican to study the frescoes of Raphael, he spent 18 months in Rome making sketches of the great art works on view there. He returned to London in July 1775 after an absence of over 2 years.
On his return, in 1775, Romney moved to Cavendish Square, in a house owned by noted portraitist Francis Cotes. He was in debt, not only on his own account but due to being saddled with the debt of his artistic but dissolute brother Peter. However, he was offered commissions by the Duke of Richmond and his circle of friends, which helped turn the tide of fortune permanently in the artist's favour. In 1776–77, he made the acquaintance of William Hayley, striking up a lasting friendship with the writer, painting portraits for him. 1782 was the beginning of an important new chapter in Romney's life, for in that year he was first introduced to Emma Hamilton who became his muse. He painted over 60 portraits of her in various poses, sometimes playing the part of historical or mythological figures, he painted many other contemporaries, including fellow artist Mary Moser. In 1797 Romney left his studio at 32 Cavendish Square, where he had worked for more than twenty years, to move to Holly Bush Hill in Hampstead.
In Hampstead Romney embarked on a series of costly building projects, sol
John Dunning, 1st Baron Ashburton
John Dunning, 1st Baron Ashburton of Spitchwick the parish of Widecombe-in-the-Moor, was an English lawyer and politician, born in Ashburton in Devon, who served as Solicitor-General from 1768. He was first noticed in English politics when he wrote a notice in 1762 defending the British East India Company merchants against their Dutch rivals, he was a member of parliament from 1768 onward. His career in the House of Commons is best known for his motion in 1780 that "the influence of the crown has increased, is increasing, ought to be diminished", he was created Baron Ashburton in 1782. He was born at Ashburton in Devon on 18 October 1731, he was a younger son of John Dunning of Ashburton, attorney, by his wife Agnes Judsham, daughter of Henry Judsham, attorney, of Old Port in the parish of Modbury, Devon. After receiving education at Ashburton Grammar School, he was articled to his father, who had a legal practice in the town, he went to London to study for the bar, was admitted a student of the Middle Temple on 8 May 1752.
While a student Dunning became close to Lloyd Kenyon and John Horne Tooke. He was called to the bar on 2 July 1756, joined the western circuit. For several years after his call he had little success. In 1762, John Glynn, one of the leading counsel on the circuit fell ill, placed his briefs in Dunning's hands. By 1764 he was making £2,000 a year, helped by his pamphlet, drawn up by Dunning on behalf of the directors of the English East India Company. In 1765 he established his legal reputation by his arguments against the legality of general warrants in the case of Leach v. Money. In 1766 Dunning was appointed recorder of Bristol, on 28 January 1768 he became Solicitor-General in the Duke of Grafton's administration, in the place of Edward Willes, raised to the bench. At the general election in March 1768, through the influence of Lord Shelburne, was returned to parliament as one of the members for the borough of Calne. Though solicitor-general, he took no part in the debate on the expulsion of John Wilkes from the house, was absent from the division.
On 9 January 1770 Dunning both spoke in favour of the amendment to the address urging an inquiry into the causes of "the unhappy discontents which at present prevail in every part of his majesty's dominions". On 19 March he spoke on the side of the minority in the debate on the remonstrance of the city of London. After some delay Edward Thurlow was appointed solicitor-general on 30 March 1770. On 12 October 1770 the freedom of the city of London was voted to Dunning. In the debate which took place on 25 March 1771, Dunning made a speech against Welbore Ellis's motion to commit Alderman Richard Oliver to the Tower of London, in which he denied the right of the house to commit in such a case. Dunning opposed the third reading of the bill for regulating the government of Massachusetts Bay on 2 May 1774. At the general election in October 1774 he was re-elected for Calne, continued to oppose the ministerial policy towards the American colonies. On 6 November 1776 he supported Lord John Cavendish's defeated motion for the "revisal of all acts of parliament by which his majesty's subjects in America think themselves aggrieved".
In the next session Dunning, continued to oppose the ministry, was instrumental in obtaining the insertion of a clause in the bill for the suspension of habeas corpus, which lessened its scope. On 14 May 1778 Dunning seconded Sir George Savile's motion for leave to bring in a bill for the relief of Roman Catholics. On 21 February 1780 he supported Savile's motion for an account of crown pensions. In the teeth of Lord North's opposition, the first resolution was carried by 233 to 215, the second agreed to without a division. Dunning a few weeks proposed an address to the king requesting him not to dissolve the parliament. At the general election in September 1780 Dunning was again returned for Calne, proposed the re-election of Sir Fletcher Norton as Speaker, but Cornwall, the ministerial candidate, was elected by 203 to 134. In February 1782 he supported Conway's motion against the further prosecution of the American war, a month announced that arrangements were being made for the formation of a new ministry.
On 27 March 1782 Dunning, with Lord John Cavendish, Charles James Fox, Edmund Burke, Augustus Keppel, was admitted to the privy council, on 8 April was created Baron Ashburton of Ashburton in the county of Devon. The king retained Thurlow as Lord Chancellor, Dunning was sworn in as chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster on 17 April, he continued in the cabinet after Lord Rockingham's death, was consulted by Shelburne in legal matters, but took little part in debates in the House of Lords. Dunning was supposed by some to have been the author of A Letter to the Proprietors of East India Stock on the subject of Lord Clive's Jaghire, occasioned by his Lordship's letter on that subject, of an Inquiry into the Doctrines promulgated concerning Juries, Libels, &c. upon the principles of the Law and the Constitution. The joint authorship of Junius's Letters has been attributed to him. On 31
Elizabeth Farren
Elizabeth Farren was an Irish actress of the late 18th century. Born in Cork in 1759 her father, George Farren was a surgeon, his drinking habits brought on his widow returned to Liverpool. Her mother went on the stage to support her children. Elizabeth first appeared on the London stage in 1777 as Miss Hardcastle in She Stoops to Conquer and the following year appeared at Drury Lane which, along with the Haymarket theatre became her primary venues for the rest of her acting career, she had over 100 characters in her repertoire including Shakespeare and various contemporary comedies and dramas. She was compared to Frances Abington, her only real rival, her last appearance was in April 1797, two months before her marriage to Edward Smith-Stanley, 12th Earl of Derby. They had two daughters. Elizabeth Farren was the daughter of George Farren of Cork, Ireland, a surgeon and apothecary an actor, his wife of Liverpool, the daughter of a publican or brewer. At a early age Farren performed at Bath and elsewhere in juvenile parts.
In 1774 she was acting with her mother and sisters at Wakefield under Tate Wilkinson's opponent, when she played Columbine and sang. At the age of fifteen, at Liverpool, she played Rosetta in Love in a Village and subsequently her best known role of Lady Townly in The Provoked Husband by Colley Cibber, she was introduced by Younger, her Liverpool manager, to George Colman and made her first appearance in London at the Haymarket on 9 June 1777, playing Miss Hardcastle. Her performance was favourably received, after playing Maria in Murphy's Citizen and Miss Tittup in Garrick's Bon Ton, she was cast as Rosina in the Spanish Barber, or the Useless Precaution, his adaptation from Beaumarchais' The Barber of Seville, she spoke the epilogue to the play. On 11 July 1778 she was the original Nancy Lovel in Colman's Suicide; this was a "breeches" part, to which her figure was unsuited, she was subjected to some satire for shapelessness. Performances as Lady Townly, Lady Fanciful in the Provoked Wife restored her to public favour.
In September 1778 she made her first appearance at Drury Lane, as Charlotte Rusport in the West Indian. She performed at this theatre or at the Haymarket for the rest of her stage career, with occasional performances in the provinces and at Covent Garden, she had over 100 characters in her repertoire, including Berinthia in Sheridan's Trip to Scarborough, Belinda in Murphy's All in the Wrong, Angelica in Love for Love, Elvira in Spanish Friar, Hermione in the Winter's Tale, Olivia in Twelfth Night, Lydia Languish, Millamant in The Way of the World, Statira and Lady Betty Modish. She "created" few original parts: Lady Sash in the Camp, assigned to Sheridan, Drury Lane, 15 October 1778; the last original part she played was the heroine of Holcroft's Force of Ridicule, 6 December 1796, unfavourably received on its first night and remains unprinted. On her last appearance, 8 April 1797, she played Lady Teazle; the Shakespearean parts of Hermione, Portia and Juliet were in her repertory, but comedy parts such as Lady Betty Modish, Lady Townly, Lady Fanciful and Lady Teazle were her favourites.
Farren was above average height. Her face was expressive and animated, she had blue eyes, a winning smile, a sweet, cultivated voice. In manner and bearing she appears to have had no rival except Frances Abington, with whom she was compared. On 1 May 1797 she married Edward Smith-Stanley, 12th Earl of Derby by whom she had a son and two daughters, she died on 23 April 1829 at Lancashire. She was admired and followed by Charles Fox. Lord Derby treated her with more respect than was sometimes given to ex-actresses. Hazlitt speaks of "Miss Farren, with her fine-lady airs and graces, with that elegant turn of her head and motion of her fan and tripping of her tongue". Richard Cumberland mentions her style as "exquisite." George Colman the younger says of "the lovely and accomplished Miss Farren" that "No person more performed the elegant levies of Lady Townly." Tate Wilkinson credits her with "infinite merit". Boaden says. Horace Walpole spoke of her as the most perfect actress he had seen, Mrs. Siddons, on the day of Farren's marriage, commiserated the loss of "our comic muse."
Farren had an affair with Anne Seymour Damer. A life-size portrait of her by Sir Thomas Lawrence, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, was shown at the Royal Academy annual exhibition in 1790. Another portrait of her was in the Mathews collection in the Garrick Club c.1900. [Works cited. London, 4to, n.d..
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