Richard Warburton Lytton Explained

Richard John Warburton Lytton (né Warburton; 26 August 1745[1] – 29 December 1810)[2] was an English landowner and member of the Lytton family. He was the father of Elizabeth Barbara Lytton, and the grandfather of Henry Bulwer, 1st Baron Dalling and Bulwer and Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton.

Early life

Richard Warburton was the son of William Warburton, of Yarrow, Queen's County, Ireland, by Barbara Lytton.[3] [4] He was baptised 5 September 1745 at St Anne's Church, Soho.[1] He was educated at Harrow School, under Robert Carey Sumner, where he knew Sir William Jones, Samuel Parr,[5] and William Bennet.[6]

Warburton added Lytton to his name when, in 1762, he inherited Knebworth House from his uncle John Robinson-Lytton.[7] In 1793, the inheritance was the subject of a Court of Chancery case that stated that Lytton could only deservedly claim full possession of Knebworth House and Park subsequent to the death in 1790 of Leonora Lytton (née Brereton), who was the widow of his uncle.[8]

Lytton, as Richard Warburton, was admitted to University College, Oxford: not to Christ Church, Oxford, which was suggested in his grandson's memoir. At Oxford he knew Richard Paul Jodrell, to whose younger sister he was married.[9] [10]

Associations

Lytton was elected to the Royal Society in 1772.[11] A letter he wrote in 1774 to Samuel Parr stated that he had been canvassing for Thomas Halsey, the Member of Parliament.[12] He attended the Greek tragedy presented by Parr's pupils at Stanmore in 1775/6, an innovation.[13] Thomas Maurice may have known of him, as Bulwer-Lytton suggests, but was at University College some time later. He was another connection of Parr, and translator of Oedipus Rex, still at university at that time.[10] [14]

According to a surviving journal, Lytton associated in the 1780s with Granville Sharp and Andrew Kippis.[15] Thomas Day the abolitionist was a university friend.[16]

Later life

After the French Revolution, Lytton was in France where he owned an estate at Boulogne, and there associated with French thinkers.[17] He left in a hurry as war broke out, and his house was confiscated.[18] He sheltered French exiles, including the Abbé Béliard, who became a teacher at the school run in Enfield by John Clarke.[19] Lytton had been introduced to Clarke by Joseph Priestley.[20] Charles Cowden Clarke, John Clarke's son, described a visit to Lytton, who was then living in Enfield. He later moved to Ramsgate.[21]

Lytton died on 29 December 1810 and was buried 5 January 1811.[22] A monumental inscription to him is in the south aisle of St Laurence, Ramsgate.[23]

Family

Lytton married in 1768 Elizabeth Jodrell, daughter of Paul Jodrell, Member of Parliament for, who survived him, dying 1 November 1818.[3] [24] [25] The couple separated permanently after about three years, with one child. Elizabeth went to live in Upper Seymour Street, London, while Richard lived in various provincial locations, not at Knebworth House.[26] At age 21, in 1766, he had come into much of the estate left to him, but not the Mansion House which remained with his aunt Leonora or Eleonora.[27]

Their daughter Elizabeth married William Earle Bulwer,[28] and was the mother of Henry Bulwer, 1st Baron Dalling and Bulwer and Edward Bulwer-Lytton, 1st Baron Lytton.[29]

Legacy and literary references

Edward Bulwer-Lytton inherited Richard Warburton Lytton's library, and was influenced by its works of German philosophy.[30] [31] Edward based the character Austin Caxton in The Caxtons, an unworldly scholar, on his grandfather Richard.[32] Bulwer-Lytton's character 'Clutterbuck', in his earlier novel Pelham, is also supposed to be based on Lytton.[33] Lytton, who is said to have written and then destroyed a drama in Hebrew, has been called eccentric.[34]

Notes and References

  1. England, Select Births and Christenings, 1538-1975
  2. Web site: Lytton, Richard Warburton (1745–1810), of Knebworth House, Hertfordshire, The National Archives. 26 June 2017.
  3. Book: Burke, Bernard. Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire. 27 June 2017. 1865. Harrison and sons. 711.
  4. Web site: The Royal Families of England, Scotland, and Wales: with their descendants, sovereigns and subjects. Burke. Bernard, Sir; Burke, John. 1848. Internet Archive. E. Churton. Pedigree LXXII. 2. 1 July 2017. London.
  5. Book: Parr. Samuel. Johnstone. John. The Works of Samuel Parr ...: With Memoirs of His Life and Writings, and a Selection from His Correspondence. 27 June 2017. 1828. Longman, Rees. 83.
  6. Book: Collins, William Lucas. The Public Schools: Winchester—Westminster—Shrewsbury—Harrow—Rugby; Notes of Their History and Traditions. 27 June 2017. 1867. W. Blackwood and sons. 283.
  7. Web site: Parishes: Knebworth, British History Online. 26 June 2017.
  8. Book: Brown. William. Thurlow. Edward Thurlow Baron. Rosslyn. Alexander Wedderburn Earl of. Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the High Court of Chancery, During the Time of Lord Chancellor Thurlow: And of the Several Lords Commissioners of the Great Seal, and Lord Chancellor Loughborough, from 1778 to 1794. 28 June 2017. 1820. H. Butterworth. 444.
  9. [s:Alumni Oxonienses: the Members of the University of Oxford, 1715-1886/Warburton, Richard]
  10. Book: Lytton, Edward Robert Bulwer. The Life, Letters and Literary Remains of Edward Bulwer, Lord Lytton. 27 June 2017. 13 February 2014. Cambridge University Press. 9781108069564. 16.
  11. Book: Thomson, Thomas. History of the Royal Society, from Its Institution to the End of the Eighteenth Century. 1812. Robert Baldwin, 47, Paternoster-Row. 54.
  12. Book: Parr. Samuel. Johnstone. John. Memoirs of the Life and Writings of Samuel Parr, LL.D.. 1 July 2017. 1829. Bohn. 84.
  13. Book: Clarke, Martin Lowther. Classical Education in Britain 1500–1900. 2 July 2017. 2 January 2014. Cambridge University Press. 9781107622067. 50.
  14. Book: Johnson, Samuel. The Letters of Samuel Johnson, Volume III: 1777–1781. 2 July 2017. 14 July 2014. Princeton University Press. 9781400862139. 170.
  15. Web site: Eighteenth-Century Materials in the Cadbury Research Library – University of Birmingham. 27 June 2017.
  16. Book: Biographia Britannica: Or, The Lives Of The Most Eminent Persons Who Have Flourished in Great Britain And Ireland From The Earliest Ages, To The Present Times: Collected From The Best Authorities, Printed And Manuscript, And Digested In The Manner Of Mr. Bayle's Historical and Critical Dictionary. 1793. Bathurst. 21.
  17. Book: Hansen, Helynne Hollstein. Hortense Allart: The Woman and the Novelist. 27 June 2017. 1998. University Press of America. 9780761812135. 77.
  18. [s:Englishmen in the French Revolution/Chapter X]
  19. 47384. Richard S.. Tompson. Clarke, John.
  20. Book: Motion, Andrew. Keats. 29 June 2017. 7 July 2011. Faber & Faber. 9780571266043. xii.
  21. Web site: Recollections of Writers, Ch 1. 27 June 2017.
  22. Web site: Richard Warburton-Lytton, Lord Byron and His Times. 27 June 2017.
  23. Web site: St Lawrence, Laurence, Ramsgate, Thanet – Churchyard M.I.'s 265MB. 27 June 2017.
  24. Book: Burke, John Bernard. A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire. 27 June 2017. 1845. H. Colburn. 554.
  25. Book: The Gentleman's Magazine, and Historical Chronicle. 1818. E. Cave. 572.
  26. Web site: Edward Bulwer, first baron Lytton of Knebworth, a social, personal, and political monograph. Escott. Thomas Hay Sweet. 1910. G. Routledge and Sons, Ltd.. 23. 29 June 2017. London.
  27. Book: Brown, William. Reports of Cases Argued and Determined in the High Court of Chancery: Trinity term, 32 Geo. 3. to Hilary term, 34 Geo. 3. 29 June 2017. 1795. E. Lynch, R. Moncrieffe, G. Burnet, C. Jenkin, J. Exshaw, R. Burton, L. White, P. Byrne, H. Whitestone. 680.
  28. Book: A Genealogical and Heraldic Dictionary of the Peerage and Baronetage of the British Empire. 1839. Henry Colburn. 146.
  29. Lytton, Edward George Earle Lytton Bulwer-. 34.
  30. Book: Huckvale, David. A Dark and Stormy Oeuvre: Crime, Magic and Power in the Novels of Edward Bulwer-Lytton. 27 June 2017. 30 November 2015. McFarland. 9780786499489. 23.
  31. Book: Powell, John. Biographical Dictionary of Literary Influences: The Nineteenth Century, 1800–1914. 27 June 2017. 2001. Greenwood Publishing Group. 9780313304224. 61.
  32. Book: Snyder, Charles William. Liberty and Morality: A Political Biography of Edward Bulwer-Lytton. 1995. P. Lang. 9780820424712. 6.
  33. Book: Rintoul, M.C.. Dictionary of Real People and Places in Fiction. 27 June 2017. 5 March 2014. Routledge. 9781136119323. 631.
  34. Web site: The Insanity of Genius and the General Inequality of Human Faculty: physiologically considered. Nisbet. John Ferguson. 1891. Internet Archive. Ward & Downey. 128. 29 June 2017. London.

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