Archibald Montgomerie, 13th Earl of Eglinton

The Right Honourable The Earl of Eglinton KT PC
Lord Lieutenant of Ireland
In office 1 March 1852 – 17 December 1852
Monarch	Queen Victoria
Prime Minister	The Earl of Derby
Preceded by	The Earl of Clarendon
Succeeded by	The Earl of St Germans
In office 8 March 1858 – 11 June 1859
Monarch	Queen Victoria
Prime Minister	The Earl of Derby
Preceded by	The Earl of Carlisle
Succeeded by	The Earl of Carlisle
Personal details
Born	29 September 1812 (1812-09-29) Palermo, Sicily
Died	4 October 1861 (1861-10-05) (aged 49)
Nationality	British
Political party	Conservative
Spouse(s)	(1) Hon. Theresa Newcomen (d. 1853) (2) Lady Adela Caroline Harriett Capell (1828-1860)
Education	Eton College

Archibald William Montgomerie, 13th Earl of Eglinton, 1st Earl of Winton KT PC (29 September 1812 – 4 October 1861), styled Lord Montgomerie from 1814 to 1819, was a British Conservative politician. He was Lord Lieutenant of Ireland in 1852 and again from 1858 to 1859.

Background and education

Eglinton was born in Palermo, Sicily, the son of Major-General Archibald Montgomerie, Lord Montgomerie (30 July 1773 – 4 January 1814), the eldest son of Hugh Montgomerie, 12th Earl of Eglinton. His mother was Lady Mary Montgomerie (d. 1848), daughter of General Archibald Montgomerie, 11th Earl of Eglinton. He was educated at Eton.^[1] As a pastime he enjoyed playing golf. One of his playing partners was James Ogilvie Fairlie.^[2]

Political career

Eglinton was a staunch Tory. In 1846, he was a whip in the House of Lords; on 28 May 1846, he spoke against the Corn Importation Bill; in May 1848 he opposed the Jewish Disabilities Bill. ^[1]

In February 1852, he became Lord Lieutenant of Ireland under the Earl of Derby. He retired with the ministry in the following December. When Derby returned to office in February 1858 he was again appointed Lord-Lieutenant, and he discharged the duties of this post until June 1859. ^[1]

In this year he was created Earl of Wintoun, an earldom which had been held by his kinsfolk, the Setons, from 1600 until 1716, when George Seton, 5th Earl of Wintoun, was deprived of his honors for high treason. Anstruther gives the date for this creation as 1840.^[3] The Earl's kinswoman, Georgina Talbot, in celebration of the restoration of the title, gave the slightly altered name 'Winton' then in Hampshire now Winton, Dorset to a residential development in Bournemouth, which she was creating at this time.^[4]

He died at Mount Melville House, near St. Andrews, on 4 October 1861, and was buried in the family vault at Kilwinning, Ayrshire, on 11 October 1861.^[1]

Horse racing

Lord Eglinton's main object of interest for some years was the turf; he kept a large racing stud and won success and reputation in the sporting world. His most successful horse was The Flying Dutchman which won the Epsom Derby and St Leger Stakes in 1849.^[5]

The Eglinton Tournament

In 1839, Lord Eglinton's name became more widely known in connection with the Eglinton Tournament. This took place at Eglinton castle and is said to have cost him £30,000 or £40,000. Contemporary ridicule is better remembered today than it successes. It was partly spoiled by the unfavourable weather, the rain falling in torrents, but it was a real tournament, participants having attended regular training during the course of the year prior and lances being broken in the orthodox way. Prince Louis Napoleon (Napoleon III) and Lady Seymour, a granddaughter of Richard Brinsley Sheridan and the wife of Lord Seymour, afterwards 12th Duke of Somerset, took part. A list of the challengers with an account of the jousts and the mêlée will be found in the volume on the tournament written by the Reverend John Richardson, with drawings by James Henry Nixon (1843). It was also described in Disraeli's Endymion.

Family

Lord Eglinton married, firstly, Theresa Howe Cockerell, nee Newcomen, widow of Captain Richard Howe Cockerell RN (1798-1839, bur Park St, Calcutta). Mrs Cockerell was an illegitimate daughter (out of 8 children)^[6] of Thomas Gleadowe-Newcomen, 2nd Viscount Newcomen (1776-1825) and his long-term mistress Harriet Holland, on 17 February 1841. Theresa Newcomen was born in Calcutta in 1809, and died on 16 December 1853 at Eglintoun Castle. They had the following children:

• Archibald Montgomerie, 14th Earl of Eglinton (3 December 1841 – 30 August 1892)
• Lady Egida Montgomerie (b ca 1843 d. 13 January 1880)
• Hon. Seton Montolieu Montgomerie (15 May 1846 – 26 November 1883) who left only daughters
• George Montgomerie, 15th Earl of Eglinton (23 February 1848 – 10 August 1919), ancestor of the present Earl

According to Eglinton's ODNB entry cited here, this marriage was the great mistake of his life. However, his stepdaughter Anna Theresa Cockerell (1836-1912), aided by her mother's second marriage, went on to marry Charles Chetwynd-Talbot, 19th Earl of Shrewsbury.

After Theresa's death in December 1853, her widower married, secondly, the Hon. Adela Caroline Harriett, daughter of Arthur Capell, 6th Earl of Essex, in 1858. They had the following children:

• Lady Sybil Amelia Montgomerie (d. 3 February 1932)
• Lady Hilda Rose Montgomerie (d. Bangors, Iver, Buckinghamshire, 18 June 1928), married Tonman Mosley, 1st Baron Anslow.

Lady Adela died in December 1860, aged only 32. Lord Eglinton survived her by less than a year and died in October 1861, aged 49. He was succeeded by his eldest son Archibald.

See also

• Eglinton Country Park
• Eglinton Tournament Bridge

Notes

Attribution

 This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Barker, George Fisher Russell (1894). "Montgomerie, Archibald William". In Lee, Sidney. Dictionary of National Biography. 38. London: Smith, Elder & Co. 

References

• Anderson, William (1877). "The Scottish Nation: Or, The Surnames, Families, Literature, Honours, and Biographical History of the People of Scotland". A. Fullarton & co. p. 125. Retrieved 13 November 2008. 
• Anstruther, Ian (1986). The Knight and the Umbrella. Gloucester : Alan Sutton. ISBN 0-86299-302-4.
• Sir William Fraser, Memorials of the Montgomeries, Earls of Eglinton (1859).

Attribution

•  This article incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Eglinton, Earls of". Encyclopædia Britannica. 9 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. pp. 17–18. 

External links

Wikisource has the text of the 1885–1900 Dictionary of National Biography's article about Montgomerie, Archibald William.

• Hansard 1803–2005: contributions in Parliament by the Earl of Eglinton
• peerage.com Archibald Montgomerie, 13th Earl of Eglinton
• The Eglinton tournament: dedicated to the Earl of Eglinton, a fully digitized illustrated book about the tournament from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries