Was John Tharp's slave-fortune cursed?

 Well, no, but it might as well have been.

John Tharp left the bulk of his fortune to the son of his oldest (and deceased) son. The heir, who was also called John Tharp, was only ten years old, so the money was held in trust and the estates managed by trustees. In the meantime, his uncle, called (can you guess?) John Tharp, was allowed to live at Chippenham Park and wallow in  the conviction that it should all have been his.

There is more to tell about Uncle John, but for now, let's look at the other side of Johnny's family.


John Murray
by Joshua Reynolds
Source: Wikimedia

Johnny's mother was Lady Susan Murray, and her father, John Murray, was the 4th Earl of Dunmore. Murray's father had been convicted of high treason for supporting Bonny Prince Charlie's claim to the throne, but he'd been pardoned after promising never to do it again. 

Dunmore got his own back for the indignity when he was appointed Governor of New York and Virginia. Using his considerable diplomatic ineptitude, he riled up the colonists and efficiently hastened the start of the American Revolution.

I digress. The point is that John Murray was not only extremely hard up, but also completely incapable of generating the wealth his status deserved and that his many children expected.


Perhaps put out that she was still unmarried at the age of 32 while her younger sister had snared herself a sugar baron, Augusta Murray restored the natural order by marrying the 20-year-old Prince Augustus in 1793. 

Lady Augusta Murray
by Richard Cosway
Source: Wikimedia


As one of George III's  spare sons, Augustus had been sent abroad for his health and then, apparently, forgotten. The couple married in a secret ceremony in Rome and then, for good measure, in a second secret ceremony in London.

Both marriages were declared invalid without the King's consent, and although he stood by his non-wife for a time, Prince Augustus eventually left Augusta with custody of their many creditors. Despite her own money-troubles, Lady Susan graciously took Augusta and her two children into her home in Ramsgate.


You can read more about that ill-fated marriage in Julia Abel Smith's Forbidden Wife, though I feel obliged to mention that Smith's depiction of Lady Augusta is considerably more favourable than anything I've seen in the Tharp family papers.


Anyway, back to my story. Little Johnny's grandfather had anticipated the obvious. He'd taken the boy away from his mother's unsavoury influence at an early age, and placed him in the home of a tutor. Although he'd come of age at 21, Johnny wouldn't inherit until he was 24 and stoic enough to withstand his mother's penury. But that wasn't all. Any attempt to borrow against the inheritance would be penalised by the transfer of five times that amount to his Uncle John, and if Johnny or Lady Susan tried to change the trustees, the whole lot would pass to Uncle John instead. 


This was all very frustrating, because Lady Susan actually really needed that money. Undeterred, she found a work-around. To protect the dear trusting boy from unscrupulous fortune-hunters, she asked the trustees for permission to marry him to a lady called Miss Caroline Roberts shortly before he came of age. Miss Roberts had no fortune to speak of, but her temper was amiable and her disposition mild. These qualities would be 'of peculiar and essential importance in the wife of a man of less than ordinary intellect and ... imbecility of mind'. I'm quoting his mother here, you understand.

Since his childhood there'd been concerns about Johnny's health and intellect. He was shy, sickly, and suffered from fits and temper tantrums. His tutor, the Reverend Sisson, with every incentive to overstate the boy's progress, confidently asserted that 'he will prove himself in time not deficient'. When Johnny was eight, Sisson wrote that 'His speech is greatly improved. He can now articulate pretty correctly, if he pleases, or more properly, if he thinks of it.'

In the event, Aunt Augusta found an even better bride than. Lady Hannah Hay was the sister of the Marquess of Tweeddale and her family discussed advancing £12,000 to Lady Susan for future access to Johnny's fortune. Lady Hannah's aunt advised that 'if [she] could be reconciled to his bashful and foolish appearance ... she might grow to like him and make him and herself very happy as his very large fortune would enable her to do'.

One tiny problem remained. Johnny didn't want to marry her. Lady Susan assured the bride that his agitation on the day (we're talking rolling on the floor and roaring) was a measure of his frustration at the possibility that the wedding might be delayed. Johnny later claimed that he hadn't known what was planned, and also -- in contradiction -- that he'd expected Caroline Roberts to be substituted at the altar. Either way, he was definitely drunk at the time. 

Stayed tuned for the happy ever after.

Comments

  1. Julie Coleman27 April 2024 at 06:24

    Here's the next instalment:

    https://mysteriousgrandmother.blogspot.com/2024/04/and-they-all-lived-happily-ever-after.html

    ReplyDelete

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